Pickled Peanuts

Star Wars Burgers Make a Disturbance in my Belly!

2012-02-06T21:50:00.000-08:00

Would I buy it, sure! Would I regret, you bet!

So in celebration /capitalization on the upcoming release of Star Wars in 3D, the fast food chain Quick has released a Star Wars themed burger. I'm just afraid of what they did to make the burger bun black.

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace in 3D!

2012-02-06T21:45:00.000-08:00

I think that many Star Wars fans are not too interested in the re-release of episode I despite it's graphics update into the realm of 3D magic. As we are all painfully aware, there is little that can be done to erase the painful performance by Jake Lloyd, who portrayed a young Anakin Skywalker, or the searing comedic talent of Ahmed best, who voiced the zany Jar Jar. On the bright side, episode one has some amazing chase scenes and action sequences thanks to the uber talented Ray Park, who of course played Darth Maul. I will still fork over the cash to see this movie because I am a sucker for special affects and am too obsessed with Star Wars to pass this opportunity by.

Recently, Mike Ryan of Moviefone website published a story that unearthed rumors that swirled the interweb before episode I came out. Some of the rumors are pretty weak but there are a few that would have made the movie much more interesting, particular where Darth Maul would have been Kenobi's clone. Pretty neat idea right? Well, follow the link here to read the rest of these unearthed rumors. Also, the one rumor I remember is the one that came from a trailer for episode III. Footage of the Millennium Falcon, Bubba Fett, and Chewbacca (not from the final Kashyk scene) were shown. I've met a few other people that remember this trailer and recalled that it played for only a short time; really it was more of a teaser trailer. However, no one seems to know why the footage was not used in the final film. Anyone out there with any ideas about it? I've also never seen this trailer again and would love to know if it exists somewhere out there in the web!

Not All Girls Bring You Lasagna...

2012-02-04T22:19:00.000-08:00

My wife and I never signed prenuptials before marrying. We've been happily married for almost 7 years. Thankfully she tolerates my geeky obsessions and has even joined me in the dark side for a few of them. Some marriages, however, can be strained by geeky obsessions, like any other obsession such as sports or video games. The result of a strained marriage can mean a messy divorce where the geeky life-long collection of toys or comics comes to an end. In these cases prenups would have been ideal.

From SF website.

An article from the website Science Fiction recently posted a story about Tony Alleyne, of England, who lost his customized flat to his ex-wife. This was no ordinary flat but one that was personally customized into a replica of the star ship Voyager! Tony had, with incredible patience and skill, transformed his flat into a real-life Trekie dream, minus the warp drive! The verdict from his long divorce showed that it was his wife that actually owned the flat he had transformed into a piece of Star Trek heaven. So with this decision, Tony was forced into destroying all his customized Trekie embellishments. In all, Tony had spent over $150,000 US and 16 years to create this 'man cave' fit for Captain Janeway herself, only to see it disappear the same way his marriage had!

From SF website.

Not to be outdone was an earlier story (also posted on Science Fiction) where a man was kicked out of the house by his ex-girlfriend. She piled and bagged up his life's collection of Star Wars collectibles and threw them out into the neighbouring alleyway. Blessed with clear skies and two working arms, the man hurried to save his collection. While I feel for this guy in the way of having a life's collection being put in jeopardy, I feel more strongly that if he had put as much gusto into his relationship that he now (presumably) would not be back to living in his parent's basement. I would say the same argument goes for Mr. Alleyne but to be fair the story of these two men's actual relationships is left unsaid, except (and it is telling) that the stories never mentioned if these men were in new relationships.

The moral of these two stories is that if you are entering a serious relationship and have a geeky passion, you must then make a decision! Before entering a serious relationship, decide what is more important: your geeky obsession or your relationship with your significant other. If it is your obsession that wins out, then make sure you have prenups in hand because chances are your serious, real-life relationship will falter. A good relationship is built on love, respect and to devoting time to being with one another. In this case, the second option is to continue your geeky obsessions with a modest amount of restraint and understanding that it is not the most important component to your life.

Personally, I love my geeky obsessions such as Lego, comic books, and science-fiction movies. However, it is the relationship with my wife that means more. It is for this reason that my wife has shown interest in my hobbies, as I have shown interest in her's. A solid relationship is built on understanding what is truly important, which I suppose is something that neither of the men in the two stories above understood before they entered serious relationships.

So to all the geeks in relationships out there, remember that it's easier to replace a collectible than it is a relationship! Don't take it fore-granted!

The wise Silent Bob (Clerks) sums it up best.

Lego is for Everyone: Awseom Time-Lapse Vid of Building Millennium Falcon

2012-02-03T06:02:00.000-08:00

Lego is for everyone! On BuzzFeed I came across a cool time-lapse video of someone building the 9-14, 1254 piece Lego Millennium Falcon set! The host says it took her 4 hours to complete and I am beset with envy! Thinking of my own Lego sets, I don't think I own anything in the 1,000 piece mark. Cool video to watch.

More Lord of the Rings Lego news!

2012-01-31T08:17:00.000-08:00

The awesomeness that will be "Lord of the Rings LEGO" continues! Recently, images of the principle mini-figures and some set names were released. The set names, along with the mini-figures included, were leaked and hence unofficial. The photos for the mini-figures, however, were officially released by LEGO.

I am ecstatic about these new sets but am still confused why they wouldn't start with sets that would tie into the Hobbit movie. I think they should definitely produce sets for the trilogy but it would make more sense to begin with the first book to keep the sets in a more chronological order. It also stands to reason that MGM Studios and Peter Jackson would've preferred a toy licence with Lego that had them first make Hobbit sets.

List of set names:
- "Gandalf Arrives" – Minifigures: Gandalf, Frodo
- "Shelob Attacks" – Minifigures: Samwise, Frodo, Gollum
- "Uruk-hai Army" – Minifigures: x4 Uruk-hai with a siege crossbow, x1 Rohirrim Soldier, x1 Rider Of Rohan with his horse
- "Attack On Weathertop"- Minifigures: Samwise, Frodo, Aragon, x2 Nazgul
- "Mines Of Moria" – Minifigures: Frogo, Gimli, Legolas, Boromir, x2 Goblins, x2 Skeletons, Cave Troll
- "The Battle Of Helms Deep" – Minifigures: Aragon, Gimli, Legolas, Theoden, x5 Uruk-hai

Lepors & Pirates

2012-01-26T09:40:00.000-08:00

A new claymation movie entitled Pirates! Band of Misfits is set to be released on April 27th, 2012. The movie is produced by Aardman Animation, the same company that brought us British claymation gems like Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run. Recently, the movie has come under fire from Leprosy Advocacy groups because of a scene where the Pirate captain boards a boat that turns out to be filled with lepers. According to the angered advocacy groups, a particular comedic scene that involved a leper loosing his arm only helps to further the stigma of the disease (movie trailer below).

Leprosy (also known as Hansen's disease) is a disease that continues to ravage people across the globe. Leprosy is curable with the treatment of several drugs over a period of months to years, with vital importance being placed on early diagnosis. Leprosy is uncommon in wealthy nations but is common in poorer nations such as India and across Africa.

I did not agree with the outright removal of this scene by leprosy groups, but instead felt that this was an instance of both PC gone a muck and a huge missed opportunity by leprosy groups, as contradictory as it may sound. What I mean by this is that political correctness in this case had the result of stripping the subject entirely away from the a source that potentially could have brought greater exposure to the disease -Pirates: Band of Misfits. A joke, that by appearance in the trailer suggested it had made light of the issue but did not seem to be maleficent in nature towards those afflicted with the disease. The missed opportunity here was huge. Instead of stripping the joke away, leprosy advocacy groups could instead have encouraged Aardman Animation to include a short trailer that educated the audience about the disease. This trailer could have been shown right before the movie and mentions the joke within the trailer, instructing the audience how leprosy is actually a current disease where funding is greatly needed for medicine and research. The result of this missed opportunity would be to educate millions of people across the world about the current issues involved with leprosy and perhaps have an added benefit of gaining new benefactors through those watching the film.

The common saying "there's no such thing as bad publicity" does not apply here. All that has happened here is bad publicity for leprosy advocacy groups because of their missed opportunity to promote their cause and that they chose a fight with a children's animated movie. What furthers the situation is that a particular individual from The Leprosy Mission has made it her goal to connect with anyone who disagrees with the removal of this scene. This lawyer, a miss Sian Arulanatham, is the Head of Programs for the mission and a self-proclaimed Human Rights Defender according to her Twitter account. Sian sends personal insults and accusations to people who criticize this move by leprosy groups on Twitter. Below is the Twitter exchange between myslef and miss Arulanatham.

The part that annoyed me the most about miss Arulanatham's Tweets was that she turned my criticism of a situation into a personal insult and assumed a lot about someone she had never met. In her first Tweet she wrote "clearly you have not experienced such suffering". Such attacks on people via the social network does no one any good and in fact it ultimately hurts the institution /beliefs you represent, in this case leprosy advocacy groups. In fact, this runs counter to what the leprosy advocacy groups were saying in the first place: that Pirates had made the joke a personal matter against those afflicted with leprosy, or in another words a joke is not funny when it comes at the expense of someone. Furthermore, her Tweet would suggest that only those that have been affect by 'suffering' can understand leprosy. Does this mean that my opinions mean less because I have not 'suffered' enough according to her vague criteria.

I truly hope that the Leprosy Mission rethinks who they have representing them through social media networks and also rethinks how they want to go about creating social awareness for their cause. Via attacking children's movies and forming personal attacks on people through social media venues, groups such as the Leprosy Mission will never achieve the positive exposure that I believe they are ultimately seeking.

I believe that issues such as leprosy deserve attention and illustrate a true tragedy in this world since it is a problem that can be solved. We have the medication but for various reasons it is not being dealt to those suffering with the problems. What is disheartening is that the groups that supposedly stand to help and be the voice for those ailing with leprosy are instead more concerned with how a children's movie is going to depict the disease and how a few people on Twitter disagreed with their stance against the said movie.

My Problems with the 2012 Oscar Nominations

2012-01-24T08:52:00.000-08:00

Oscar Nominations were listed today and right away I found myself angry! Below are my problems with the list and my opinion on who will win according to their list. The full list of 2012 Oscar Nominations can be found here.

1. Why were there only 9 films chosen for Best Picture? 50/50, Ides of March, Crazy Stupid Love, Young Adult, and Girl with the Dragon Tattoo are all real contenders for the spot of 10th film nod. Artist will win, but Hugo deserves to win.

2. Best Actor category filled with award favorites, not necessarily best actors. Leonardo Dicaprio (J. Edgar) and Joseph Gordan Levitt (50/50) should have been included over Brad Pitt. Clooney, Pitt, and Oldman all delivered adequate performances (Oldman perhaps the best), but Dujardin (The Artist) will win. Levitt should have been nominated and won.

3. Best Actress category is filled with incredible performances. There were handfuls of strong leading ladies this year and while some were left out, they were not substituted by weaker actresses unlike the best male actor category -however, I would have liked to have seen Theron (Young Adult) nominated somehow. Meryl Streep will win, and probably should win.

4. Supporting Actor category has two inclusions that take away from more deserving actors. Jonah Hill (Moneyball), in particular, delivered a strong but not award winning performance. Sacha Baron Cohen (Hugo), however, did. Christopher Plummer will win, but Cohen should win.

5. I have no issues with the Best Supporting Actress category. Lots of great female actors this year and it is difficult to choose who was best. I think Octavia Spencer (The Help) will win, but I have to admit to not seeing the Artist yet.

6. Honestly, this was not a terribly strong year for animated movies. From the Oscar list I have only seen two of the nominations, Rango and Kung Fu Panda 2, which neither were all that special. What I do find notable is that Cars 2 was not nominated. This makes it the first time Pixar has not been nominated, and from what I hear from reviewers, they didn't deserve a nomination anyways.

7. In the Best Director category we see David Fincher again being snubbed. I think Fincher and Christopher Nolan need to start up their own self-help I got snubbed by the Oscars again club! Scorsese for Hugo is a shoe-in for winning the award, but Hazanavicius and Payne may give him a run for his money. Overall, a lot of strong contenders.

8. Best Original Score overlooked Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross' amazing soundtrack for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It's a real shame because Reznor and Ross produced an amazing soundtrack that added depth to each scene of the movie. Tintin is the obvious choice for me as to who should not have been included in the list, but I think the Artist will win as it is a silent movie and therefore the soundtrack becomes that much more obvious and important.

9. How can there be only TWO nominations for Best Original Song? How? Was there really only two good original songs this year? Bullshit! I'm sure Elton John had at least ONE decent song from Nomeo and Juliet! Plus, The Muppets was loaded with awesome songs! Muppets will easily win.

10. Best Adapted Screen Play makes a HUGE omission by not including Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Huge mistake! My money is on Hugo winning.

11. Best Original Screen Play also made HUGE omissions by not including Young Adult and 50/50!
Either one of these movies could have won, but as it stands I would have to choose Midnight in Paris.

Star Wars: The Next Generation, Blue Ray Release

2012-01-23T22:44:00.000-08:00

Recently read that TNG seasons, the TV show, will be begin being released on blue-ray early in 2012, beginning with a sampler collection on January 31st. I usually don't care about HD transfers because I have a crappy TV but this time I do because the difference is substantial! On the Random Tuesday website, photos from the DVD set are shown morphing into the same photo from the Blue Ray set. This morphing illustrates some outstanding differences between the two sets. Scenes with characters appear substantially sharper and the film grains from the original production are smoothed out and the lines now appear crisp. Changes in focus are also made, providing greater depth to each scene as well. The most noticeable differences are probably those that involve special effects. These scenes are principally those that feature the Enterprise, where the ship is depicted with considerable more detail. In one particular screen shot, the Enterprise is shown in front of a Klingon Bird of Prey. The Enterprise again is shown with a much higher level of clarity and detail and the Bird of Prey is replaced completely with a CGI version of the ship.

Overall, the changes look fantastic and is what a lot of fanboys had originally hoped would happen with the Star Wars films -update the film quality and special effects but leave the damn story line alone! Again, here is the link to the website that features the comparison /morphing screen shots.

Popular Culture of the early 1900's -In Film!

2012-01-22T09:37:00.000-08:00

Today's cinema produces images and ideas that are sometimes too risque for the general public. Grossly, however, these films are not banned but instead labeled with the nefarious NC17 or X ratings, which imply that no children are allowed to see the film. A recent example of this comes from the 2011 release, Shame, which offered a critically praised lead performance by Michael Fassbender. What produces strong labeling often includes overtly sexual imagery such as graphic sex scenes, while over-the-top violence achieves much less restrictive labels such an R rating. Outright banning of a film is an extremely rare occurrence in the Western cinema world, and the reasons often involve lawsuits that result only in a film being delayed.

The reasons why modern films are provided NC17 ratings or are banned are only slightly different from the rationales utilized in the turn of the 20th Century. My previous post discussed how much popular culture had changed in the past 100 years, but this post illustrates how in some areas popular culture has not changed at all.

Thomas Edison is the creator of film and two of his initial films were banned for being too sexual in nature! In 1896 Edison released the incredibly short and silent film, The Kiss. This film featured a couple having a short but sweet smooch. In 1900, Edison revisited the subject with Kissing. The image of two lovers partaking in a kiss was too much for the average Western eye and so the films were moth balled. In one shade of light, this is starkly different from today where film scenes with a sexual nature are much more graphic than this before they are moth balled or slapped with strict labels. In another shade of light, popular culture of today and yesterday are no different for it is the subject matter of intimacy between two people that is the mire of our society while images of violence are allowed and praised. In 1900, the most popular film was The Great Train Robbery, which was also crafted by Edison. From the title alone, this film has a much more violent theme than The Kiss or Kissing.

I am not suggesting that violent films should be moth balled in replace of more sexual films. I personally enjoy action films and movies such as Pulp Fiction, A Clockwork Orange, and Taxi Driver are among my all time favorite films. However, I think it is instructive to consider what subjects our society restricts and to think of why these subjects over others are viewed in certain ways. By doing so, we as a society can understand ourselves better and come to more holistic conclusions on what direction our society should take in the future.

Documentary of the Arctic Resurfaces after 108 years!

2012-01-22T08:43:00.000-08:00

Still from Trip to the Moon

A hundred years ago popular culture was much different than today's. This statement probably won't surprise anyone but I doubt that many people know what was popular 100 years ago. Looking back on what constituted popular culture forces me to think of what is considered popular culture today and how it will be viewed in the future. A hundred years ago popular culture was characterized by learning about foreign cultures and landscapes (to name but two), which are subjects found in famous pieces of literature such as Heart of Darkness and early films such as Trip to the Moon, which is a film presented within the recent wonderful film Hugo.

Early publicity image from the arctic.

In the mid to late 19th Century, film was just beginning. The beginnings of film are rooted in the public showing of photographs, which is something that has been featured in the recent AMC show Hell on Wheels with the two Irish brothers showing photos from home that are projected upon a screen. One of the more popular subjects for these screenings, and for the first silent movies, was images of the savages in exotic locales. The images that were captured during this time have been a rich resource for anthropologists and archaeologists in studying the life-ways of traditional cultures in areas such as South America, Africa, Polynesia, and the Canadian Arctic.

Illustration of the search for the Franklin Expedition.

The arctic, in particular, captured the popular imagination because of it's stark dissimilarity to the world in which Westerner's knew. This ice covered land that appeared to be uninhabitable was instead populated by thriving Inuit groups. This region was also important as a possible route for shipping as the Panama canal had yet to be built at this time. The exploits of Western explorers (think Shackelton and Franklin) became legendary and entranced Western audiences via newspaper articles, public lectures, and of course, newly created slide shows and later moving pictures.

Still from The Romance of the Far Fur Country

Recently, a documentary resurfaced from archives in England that dates to 1919! This silent film was entitled The Romance of the Far Fur Country. This is some of the earliest footage of the Canadian arctic and it seems from the BBC News story that the film is very romantic in nature, which is inline with many of the arctic documentaries of that era. The restored documentary will be shown in numerous arctic communities and hopefully will be made available online through the HBC archives, which is the company that originally financed the film. I recomend you see this film as it provides an idea of what once constituted popular culture and is also an excellent portal into how traditional cultures thrived in the Canadian arctic!

Assassidate ~ New Webseries from David & Kate Hewlett!

2012-01-21T08:27:00.000-08:00

David Hewlett hard at work on set of Stargate

David Hewlett is perhaps best known for his role in the Stargate franchise, notably Atlantis. His sister, Kate, also acted alongside him in a few episodes but she is not as well known. David is also known for his writing and acting abilities in the beloved cult Canadian indy films, Cube and Nothing; I beg you to see these two movies if you have not already! Recently, David was cast as the angry neighbor in Rise of the Planet of the Apes movie that was released in the summer of 2011. Privately (or perhaps not so privately), David is known for his consistent Tweeting about his son and their geekish adventures of making lightsabers and learning the inner mysteries of comic book lore. Suffice to say, David is one beloved icon of geekdom!

Just this week, David and his sister Kate released the first episode of their webseries entitled Assassidate. The first episode is just over 3 minutes long and focuses on a skype conversation between the brother and sister where David reveals that his wife just left him. Within three minutes I managed to laugh more frequently and harder than I have at most of the tv shows aired this season! The premise is unique and filled with geeky references -if you're not a geek, make sure to look up what LARP is before watching this! The comedic timing is also spot on, with juicy punches being jovially thrown between the two siblings. I highly recomend watching this webseries and I hope to see more episodes in the near future!

Geekdad has a good article about this webseries, and the original vid can be found on youtube here.

Star Trek Sequel Update!

2012-01-20T08:11:00.000-08:00

I loved J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movie because it was a fresh and gritty take on a classic sci-fi favorite. I also appreciated the movie because it engaged people that were not originally fans of the franchise, such as my wife who loathed the acting in the original series but loved how the characters were portrayed in the new movie despite how the new actors faithfully rendered the styling of the original Enterprise crew. This being said, I do recognize how many Star Trek fans were dismayed as to how Abrams filmed a Star Trek movie that was more in line with the Star Wars franchise and dismissed some of the core values of the original shows.

The latest news of the Star Trek sequel is that principal photography has begun, along with the announcement that the release date will be May 17th, 2013. Below is the press release from Paramount pictures:

Paramount Pictures announced today that principal photography has commenced in Los Angeles, CA on the sequel to STAR TREK from director J.J. Abrams. The film will be released on May 17, 2013 in 3D. The 2009 re-launch of the “Star Trek” franchise by Abrams was met with critical acclaim and a worldwide gross of over $385 million at the box office.
Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions present a Bad Robot Production of a J.J. Abrams Film. Returning to their posts on the Enterprise are John Cho, Bruce Greenwood, Simon Pegg, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoë Saldana, Karl Urban, and Anton Yelchin. They are joined by new cast members Benedict Cumberbatch, Alice Eve and Peter Weller.

Top Movies of 2011: My Opinion

2012-01-12T09:17:00.000-08:00

For what it's worth, here's my list of the top movies I've seen this year. There are a few movies I did not have a chance to see yet that I am sure would make it somewhere in this list, such as Girl with a Dragon Tattoo, Midnight in Paris, Ides of March, Driver, The Artist, and Martha Marcy May Marlene. Nonetheless, I have seen a large swath of the movies released this year and I have noticed that the ones I believed to be the best were nowhere to be found on the lists others have set up (for instance Rotten Tomatoes). In particular, I strongly felt Hugo was an astounding piece of film despite being unanimously panned and dismissed, unlike the popular clunker that the Descendants was and yet unanimously hailed as being the year's strongest.

The movies here are what I felt were some of the best and most worth watching. I had more of a 'take it or leave it' mentality for movies like Contagion and Transformers, and hence are included here.

My choices:

1. Hugo
A visually stunning movie where Scorsese delivers a doctoral thesis on why film is important and how 3D can be used to tell a story. This is a masterful movie where each character is well rounded and utilized to their full potential. Most under-rated movie of the year.
2. 50/50
This was an astounding movie in how real and powerful the subject matter of cancer was presented. The performance by Joseph Gordan Levitt was inspiring and the script was strong. Levitt definitely deserves an Oscar nod, if not the prize itself.

3. War Horse
It begins with a Disney-esque sequence but quickly turns into a Spielberg classic thereafter. This is a movie constructed around several vignettes that approach the subject of war from a few different angles and manages to do so deftly and with great thought. What surprised me the most was that considering I am not someone who cares for animal centric movies, I was moved and attached to the character of the horse by the end of the film.

4. The Muppets
To be fair, I am a little biased in my opinion of this movie as I was already a fan of this franchise. However, the people that went to see the movie with me were not but quickly became fans thereafter. I loved how witty and original the songs were, how gifted the jokes were, and how the new movie stayed true to the original conception of the Henson Muppets.
5. Young Adult
This movie stands out from many of the other movies I saw this year for it's unparalleled acting from Charlize Theron and the level of detail that director Jason Reitman brings to the screen. The story is flawless with having a twisted nature that makes you simultaneously sympathize and hate the main character.
6. Crazy Stupid Love
Hands down the biggest surprise of the year. Going in I thought I would encounter a generic romantic comedy but instead left seeing a well thought out and composed drama. A multitude of well conceived characters both in story and acting are presented.
7. Money Ball
The acting is superb and the cinematography is captivating. The love for the game is on center stage and interest in the characters is abound. The movie falters, however, with not presenting enough on the characters themselves and would have done better if the supporting characters were developed more.
8. Captain America
It has the thrills as expected with a summer block-buster, but it also had some of the strongest characters to be found in any movie this year. The movie is filled with fun and excitement, which pleased me on a visceral level but also left me surprised with the breadth of story and character. By far the best of the summer block busters.
9. Friends with Benefits
Reminded me of 300 Days of Summer, but came up short in the story's grandeur and originality. However, I greatly appreciated the refreshingly real substance of this romantic comedy, which is why I draw parallels to it and 300 Days of Summer.
10. Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Like Captain America, I came in expected a generic summer blockbuster but left seeing something much more. While falling in the category of sci-fi, this is more of a drama that focuses on the relationship between an ailing father and his son. This is an incredibly bleak movie with strong acting and a surprisingly sophisticated story line. One of the year's dark horses.
11. Arthur Christmas
Funny and touching. The subject matter is not unique as it features the squabbling relationships within a family, but it is executed very well with numerous well timed laughs to make it perhaps the best animated movie of the year.
12. Harry Potter
The ending of an epic franchise. By itself, the movie is strong but not excellent. However, in the context of the series this finally acts as a terrific bookend. I left the theater feeling satisfied with how the characters were left but was aggravated how it completely dropped the Deathly Hallows' storyline that the previous two movies had been working towards.
13. Thor
There is nothing deep or Oscar worthy found in this movie. However, this was one of the most fun movies of the year besides The Muppets. Some of the best casting was featured in this movie, with a story line that had a perfect pace and amount of laughs that filtered through the screaming action sequences. The biggest flaw, however, was that a lot more story could have been told. In particular, this story focuses on the decent and resurrection of Thor, but the story pays hardly any time to showing Thor's decent.
14. Bridesmaids
While funny, I did not find this movie as hysterical as some. It is obviously a female take on The Hangover, and does so with a considerable amount of originality. One of the better comedies of the year.
15. X-Men: First Class
Like Thor, X-Men had some of the year's best casting. The acting was outstanding but the film suffered from several slow moments in the story; Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy stole the show.
16. Super 8
I want this movie to be better! The first 4/5 of the movie reminded me of the best Spielberg films but the ending was so damn poor and cliched! The movie opens with an original premise and uses aliens as a foil to understand the relationship between father and son, and the loss of the mother character. Excellent dialogue and acting all around, but with such a weak and generic ending it reminded me of District 9 where again we had an original movie that ended like a generic action flick.
17. Descendants
I don't get why people love this movie so much. George Clooney is good but he is only playing himself; I do not see a noticeable difference from how he portrayed characters in other movies. The directing is well executed with some terrific cinematography, however the story is segmented with characters being haphazardly dropped and a different storyline being awkwardly jammed in half-way through the movie.

Star Wars Lego Mini-Figures: 7957 Sith Nightspeeder

2012-01-12T07:41:00.000-08:00

Ventress

Opress

Anakin

Over the holidays I was given a new Star Wars Lego set! This is a new set based off characters from the Clone Wars tv show and featured Asajj Ventress, Savage Opress, and Anakin Skywalker. This set's vehicle is pretty simple, featuring a skiff-like machine with two detachable rocket-styled bikes. Opress and Ventress utilize the vehicle. There is nothing horribly complicated to this set, and truly the set is memorable only for the mini-figures that it includes.

I did not previously have a Ventress or Opress in my Lego mini-figure collection, but do have several Clone Wars Anakin Skywalker figures. The Ventress mini-figure included two lightsabers with curved handles similar to Count Dooku's. Her body has a simple design with dark blues and blacks, with small amounts of silver on the front. The head has an intricate design, faithfully representing the markings she sports in the cartoon series. These markings are found on both the front and back of her head.

Savage Opress is easily one of the most complex mini-figures I've seen. He came with two weapons, a double-sided lightsaber and a large war axe. The front of his face has an intricate design similar to that of Darth Mauls', but is in eye and has a head attachment with upward extended horns. A chest plate fits under his head and covers another intricate yellow design. When the chest plate is fitted on, this yellow design is completely obscured. I appreciate the level of detail here as Lego did not have to add the yellow design with it being covered up.

#7957 set Anakin

Lastly, an Anakin Skywalker mini-figure was included in this set. He came with a blue lightsaber that had a dull silver handle. Black and brown colors dominate his body, with simple lines suggesting robes and a belt, which is the attire worn during the cartoon series. There are scars on both the left and right side of his face and his hair is big and disheveled. Compared to the other Clone Wars series Anakin Skywalker I have (from the #7669, Anakin's Jedi Starfighter set) , the heads are identical, but the chest for the new one is much darker in color and has a slightly different pattern.

All three mini-figures from #7957

#7669 set Anakin with R2D2

World Juniors 2012: Calgary

2012-01-07T11:33:00.000-08:00

For the past few weeks I've been working at the World Junior's event in Calgary, Alberta. I wasn't doing anything too remarkable, but the event itself was. There were people from multiple countries such as Latvia, Sweeden, Russia, and so on; all of whom had different roles with the hockey teams that were participating in the events. During the two or so week long event I managed to see a few games including the gold medal game that pitted Russia against Sweden. On the day of the gold medal game I saw or met numerous people associated with the various teams. I also saw or met numerous notable hockey and political personalities that were attending the games, such as Steve Yzerman, Prime Minister Harper, and Jim Peplinski.

Gold medal game: Rus vs Swe

A few of the individuals I met, including Peplinski, gave me pins. I am not a pin collector but as you can imagine from the kind of things I discuss on my blog here, I do collect a variety of things. The pins that were given to me are incredibly unique and definitely make great keepsakes from attending and working the games. Additionally, my experiences have been nothing but positive and in particular one pin showed just how enthusiastic and kind the people associated with the World Juniors teams were.

Event Organization pin.

IIHF 2012 pin.

Finish /Swedish 2012 IIHF pin.

Russian hockey pin (Russian text).

In all, I was given 4 pins. None of these pins could be bought at the event. Instead, certain individuals (mainly people associated with the IIHF or specific teams) handed out pins when asked. One pin I received was provided by the event organization for working there. This pin features an image of the World Junior's location, unlike any of the other pins I saw. A second pin, given to me by Peplinski, is the IIHF 2012 event pin. A third pin commemorated the Finish and Swedish teams and was given to me by one of the Swedish team coaches. The fourth pin represented Russian hockey and was given to me by the assistant coach of the Russian team. When I had first met the assistant coach I had asked if he had any extra team pins. In his broken English, he said he had run out but would grab more from his room. I didn't think for a second that he would actually return, but sure enough he did.

Those associated with the Russian team were by far the nicest of anyone at the games. The Russians were not the nicest because they gave me a pin, but instead because of how genuinely enthusiastic they were about the games. They were enthusiastic about Canada and hockey as a whole, which is counter to the serious nature that has epitomized their popular perception. It is because of this that I will cheer a bit more loudly whenever I see a Russian team play!

Lord of the Rings Lego sets!

2011-12-29T18:52:00.000-08:00

That's right! Lego is planning on releasing a series of Lord of the Rings sets this summer, 2012! I learned of this from Ain't it Cool , who shared images from four proposed sets -which I have also posted here. I am already excited about this and am curious to see where they could go with this product. Unlike other movie franchises that Lego has mined, like Star Wars and Harry Potter, there are no vehicles and few key structures that could be built. In these six images we see two key structures, Helm's Deep and the Mines of Moria. Besides these places we have possibilities in the various homes from the Shire and the tower of Isengard. What is perhaps more enchanting is the possibility of sets featuring The Hobbit! A giant Lego set of Smaug would be truly jaw-dropping-drool worthy!

Week 4 of the New DC Comics: Part Deux!

2011-10-20T12:04:00.000-07:00

This was the final pile of new DC books I read. The pile included All-Star Western, Aquaman, Batman: The Dark Knight, Blackhawks, The Flash, and The Fury of Firestorm. This was a very strong group of books in comparison to the other books released in the final week. There were some weaker books, but overall each of the books hold an argument for continuing to read them. Also, I had not previously read any of these books on a monthly basis. From what I read, at least three of these books will be picked up again in the future: All-Star Western, Aquaman, & The Flash.

All-Star Western: This is a fun book to read! It is a wonderful break from the rest of the super-hero laden comics that DC churns out. Here we have the story of Jonah Hex, a mysterious bounty hunter of the late 1880's. Hex comes to Gotham city where he finds himself caught up in a Jack-the-Ripper style murder mystery. The story is great with wonderful nods to places and names that crop up in the modern Batman books, making you wonder if what happens in this book could affect the modern books. The art is by Jimmy Palmiotti, who is an artist I have loved for a very long time. This past summer at the Calgary Fan Expo, Palmiotti was in attendance and made the announcement that he would be joining the creative team on this book. His art is masterful here and shows how much his talent has grown over the decades. Highly recomend this book!

Aquaman: Doesn't Aquaman talk to the fish or something? This and other questions are all bluntly answered in this well crafted and highly entertaining first book!

Honestly, I have never been a fan of Aquaman. He's the but of most geek'ish jokes. Geoff Johns, the writer of this book presents a a character who is re-examining his past, left his previous role of King of Atlantis, and is trying awkwardly to fit in to life on dry land. The story also has a slight edge to it that feels as though this is how Quentin Tarantino would interpret the character provided he had to work within a PG-13 framework.

Johns' story does not explain the origin of Aquaman but instead plops the reader in the middle of this character's story where a new chapter in his life is being explored. This strategy has been found in a number of the new DC comics such as Swamp Thing and Hawkman, and as in the case here can be a great tool to satisfy older and newer readers by not discrediting the past while offering a clean slate for the new reader. In all, I really enjoyed this take on Aquaman and am very interested in where this character will be taken next.

Batman, The Dark Knight: Another Batman book is included in the New DC lineup. Thus far there have been Batman, Batman & Robin, Detective Comics, and the plethora of Batman spin-off titles like Batgirl. The high number of Bat books is rationalized if each of the comics focused on one aspect of Batman. In such a case Batman & Robin would be the relationship between the two, Detective Comics would focus on Batman solving crimes, and Batman would be a holistic book focusing on Bruce Wayne, alter ego of Batman, and interactions with secondary characters like Robin. However, what is The Dark Knight supposed to be about then? It would seem that this book focuses more on the private life of Bruce Wayne as the first issue explores a party that Bruce holds where a member of the police department says he is being investigated for financially supporting the Batman. If this book is to focus on Bruce Wayne, then I am left wondering if this is something I have ever wanted to read about or will this provide me an interesting angle on the complex world of Batman?

Overall, the story isn't bad but I do not find that it adds anything to the other Batman books and instead this book will get forgotten about. Even if the book is to focus on Bruce Wayne, I am unconvinced there is a need for such an ongoing book; instead, this might work better as a mini-series. The writing and art is provided by David Finch, who might be better than Tony Daniels who draws & writes for the Detective series. I recomend this book but would not doubt this book being canceled within the year because of its redundancy with the other Bat books, even if it is done well.

Black Hawks: This is not a bad book, but it makes very little sense in how it figures into the overall DC Universe. A team of UN sanctioned covert military agents are focused upon here where they combat various threats. In the first story we see the group stop terrorists (I guess that's what they are), a UN representative informs the Black Hawks that their cover has been compromised, and that one of their agents has been infected by something. Not a bad introductory plot, but without an explanation of how this fits into the realm of other superhero books I was left wondering what the point of Black Hawks will be. Is this book to be an isolated group of characters or will their actions have repercussions (and vice versa) in other DC books? Black Hawks #1 is worth reading, and I am tempted to read the next few issues to see where this book is headed. However, if the creators of the book do not explain the role /importance of this book soon I will also quickly loose interest.

The Flash: The releasing of the Flash during the final week of the New DC run was a misstep. The Flash was the central figure during the Flashpoint series that led to the re-numbering of the DC comics. As he was such a pivotal figure, one would guess the title Flash book would be massively promoted and included in the first week of books. This book, one would again assume, would be used to explain how things did and did not change in the DC Universe as the Flash was the reason why these changes had begun at all. Additionally, one might assume that the Flash would be one of the few characters to remember what the universe had been like and to recall what he had previously done. Instead, the first issue of the Flash provides none of this and leaves the long-time reader wondering how the previous Flashpoint and Flash books figure into the new Flash series.

Leaving the problems above aside, Flash #1 is a stupendous comic. It is loads of fun and features some of the best art in the DC Universe. Manapul utilizes grey washes over top a cartoony /anime style that works really well here; also reminds me of Tim Sale's work. The dialogue is also crisp and the pacing of the comic works very well, leaving a lot of story for developing characters but never making you feel bogged down with too much exposition. This is one of the best books DC has produced and should /will become one of their most popular books!

The Fury of Firestorm, The Nuclear Men: This is hands down the worst illustrated book out of the bunch. Yildiray Cinar's art is horribly stilted and filled with poor anatomy. The faces feature two expressions: nothing or angry. The story was also generic and poorly structured with a secret group of assassins chasing after a mysterious product of a science experiment. The reader is taken on a voyage across the globe as this group brutally murders anyone associated with the experiment as they track down whatever it is they are looking for. Eventually their chase leads them to a high school in the United States where two teenage boys have the product and use it and become Firestorm. This is a very generic story that has been used for the retelling of too many other super-heroes. What makes the story worse is that it took TWO writers to come up with this: Gail Simone & Ethan van Sciver. I'm not familiar with Sciver, but Simone has produced much better stuff and recently gave us the pretty decent Batgirl comic. I don't know what happened here between these three creative persons, but I have no interest in seeing where this book goes.

Week 4 of the New DC Comics!: Part Une!

2011-10-13T10:13:00.000-07:00

This is the longest post yet about the new DC comics. This length is due to the poor nature of many of the books DC put out in their final week of new books. In this post I only discuss half of the books DC released in their final week, and the other half will be discussed in a later post (probably next week). None of the below comics were ones I previously read and none are instant winners. Four of the comics did leave me interested enough to pick up a second issue and give the books another try, but overall this group of comics was a serious disappointment. From the group discussed here, I would recommend: Justice League Dark, I Vampire, Savage Hawkman, and maybe Teen Titans.

Green Lantern, New Guardians: On the plus side this book offered the kernels of an interesting story, a very brief reframing of the origin of Kyle Rayner becoming a Green Lantern, and that the art was OK. The biggest downside is that as a previous follower of the Green Lantern comic the story left me thoroughly confused as to what the heck has happened to the continuity of the Green Lantern comics and the DC universe as a whole. First off, why is Kyle not already a GL but everyone else previously shown in GL books are? In the previous GL books Kyle was already a GL, so I presume this book represents a complete reboot of Kyle's character, but why is he the only GL to have a reboot? In the previously released GL #1, the story picked up right where the previous GL story started. This lack of coherency in story has left me wondering where all the other new DC books fit into the continuum as it appears that books such as Batman have been left unchanged but books like the Blue Beetle have been completely altered. Is it me or did DC release a source book explaining all this that I missed? A second and smaller problem is that Kyle is unaware of the presence of other Lanterns when he first becomes one, yet a random guy he saves on the next page is well aware of their existence. Furthermore, this comic appears to occur at the same time as does the story in the Green Lantern CORPS comic where the Lanterns are very well known throughout the world. So how the heck doesn't Kyle know about the Lanterns?

The issue of continuity problems has been addressed by many other online critics. It is a glaring problem with the DC reboot that boggles my mind as to how they managed to mess things up so badly. The blame settles upon the editors and should have been a simple issue to ensure not to happen. DC advertised their reboot as a clean slate to their heroes so new readers could begin reading their books. However, this clean slate and issue of reboot has only been applied to a select few characters with no explanation why other heroes were not included.

I, Vampire: Right away I was confused by this comic for the title is almost identical to another comic DC is producing under its Vertigo imprint. This other comic is called I, Zombie and is an absolutely exceptional book. The close similarity in name had me thinking these books would be connected in some way, but after reading 'I, Vampire' I discovered that there were no similarities other than the name and presence of classic horror creatures; but why use such a similar name? It makes no sense and is frankly a stupid move by DC.

One of the best parts of this book is the art. Andrea Sorrentino provides the illustrations that are strongly reminiscent of Jae Lee's work with the usage of heavy and blocky blacks and scratchy /scribbly lines. This similarity is so strong that it leaves Sorrentino's art less memorable because of the lack of originality in style, but nonetheless the art looks good. What does work to Sorrentino's benefit is that no one else in the DC line of new books are using a similar style. While Sorrentino's art is not original, it is original in comparison to the other DC books.

i Zombie: confusingly similar names.

Going into this book I knew nothing about the characters or the previous usage of vampires in DC comics for that matter. The book opens with a conversation between two vampires, Andrew & Mary, and an ill described sequence of Andrew walking through a street filled with dead and weeding out the vampires from the dead that he then kills. The premise is interesting enough and a shallow depth of mystery this book provides also engaged my senses. However, I finished the book not caring about the characters. Such a lack of caring destroyed any sense of engagement the book had instilled in me. There is little depth provided to the characters and I, the reader, was thrown into the climax of the story without having a solid build-up to it. This book needed to start out much slower and allow the reader to become more familiar with the characters.

In all, I Vampire is a curious book that has me conflicted about the art's originality, confused by the naming of the book, and left me not interested in the main characters. Yet, the storyline had some interesting elements that could pan out to be a gripping yarn later in the year.

Justice League Dark: This is a fantastic comic because I LOVED the art and the story presented a unique cast of characters in an exciting premise! In this issue, a team is slowly comprised with a group of mystics such as John Costantine and Deadman. The team has not yet gelled but the characters are converging, with their importance foreshadowed with the defeat of three members of the JLA by the character known as Enchantress. The story is very dark and moody, with tons of foreshadowing.

The book could do with one or two less characters as a group of six is maybe too much and does not leave enough time to develop each character. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the group of characters assembled here but feel that Swamp Thing too should be included (despite the fact the book would do better with fewer characters). The art inside the book is just as well rendered as the illustration on the cover. The art is provided by Mikel Janin who uses soft lines with a realistic style that reminds me of J.G. Jones and Adam Hughes. I don't think this book has received much attention and could easily become a sleeper hit!

The Savage Hawkman: I am most familiar with the character of Hawkman from cartoons and a handful of his guest appearances in other comic books. I have always liked the character but whatever reason never became a big fan. This first issue did not make me into a big fan but did pique my interest. The story is pretty simple with Hawkman conflicted about having powers, which then change and force him into retaining his powers. Hawkman's conflict over his powers is poorly explained and made me feel that I should've read earlier Hawkman issues.

The second component of the story is a glimpse at Hawkman's private /regular life, and then the story's third act reveals a new villain. These last two components were presented well but did not leave any character development for secondary and tertiary characters as multiple pages were used up with a fight sequence in the final act. As for Hawkman himself, there is little exploration or explanation of his character. The only side of Hawkman we see is his anger, which is all fine and well if you're talking about the Hulk.

Turning to the art you find a very compelling reason to pick up this and future issues of the book. Philip Tan provides luscious illustrations that have grey tones that give the illusion of each page looking like a water color painting. I love the contrast of loose and angled lines and the minimalist approach taken on some of the elements like clothing. It really works and I look forward to seeing where Tan's art will go later in this book.

Superman: Who is Superman in light of the new DC? This is a question left unanswered in this first issue. It is not until the final few pages that Clerk Kent is provided a brief character sketch. Instead, we are treated to a long explanation of what the role of the Daily Planet, or lack thereof, is in the new DC universe. It is more of a commentary on the changing face of the modern news media with obvious references to the Rupert Murdoch scandal of unethical journalism. Considering that this comic is named SUPERMAN, and that the point of the renumbering of the DC comics was to reintroduce new and old readers to their characters, I am left bewildered why George Perez, the writer, took such a bizarre direction in the first issue.

Another glaring problem with this comic is that at no point was there a sense of wonder or awe. These are critical elements in portraying Superman. He is the Man of Steel, the Man of Tomorrow, yet neither nickname find relevance in this issue. Superman is instead used as a tool to halt evil doers, but in an unremarkable way where any other superhero could have been swapped in for Supes. In all, I was left un-enthused with this issue and the treatment of Superman. I truly expected much better from this issue.

Teen Titans: I am very torn on how to feel about this first issue. To begin, a book entitled 'Teen Titans' does not have the feel of a group of 'Teenagers'. Instead, Scott Lobdell, the writer, introduced us to a group of superheroes that are in their early to mid 20's; perhaps the book should be called 'Young Adult Titans"? Problems of age aside, I found the dialogue some of the best and funniest yet in the new DC books. The dialogue felt genuine to each character, with good usage of stereotypes in the dialogues that set the characters apart from one another; for instance, Kid Flash speaks in a quick and arrogant fashion while Red Robbin speaks in a more deliberate and wiser fashion. The overall story itself is strong but nothing too original. On the plus side, the book briefly introduces you to all the characters that will join the team but focuses on only three of them. This allows the reader a slower introduction to the book which fosters greater character development and character likability. This was a strong move that Justice League Dark would've been improved by following.

The final point to mention is the art, which is one of the undoings of this comic. Brett Booth provides generic artwork where everyone has the same body type and facial features. The environments are rendered with sufficient detail but the choice of framing is uninspired. For this book to succeed, Lobdell needs to rethink who his script fits into a book called 'Teen Titans', and Booth needs to spend more time on creating original and realistic art.

Voodoo: Wow DC. All I can say is wow, and I do not mean this in an awe inspiring kind of way. This book had a number of problems, the biggest of which is who DC believes the target audience of this book is for? Ron Marz provides the script and is a writer I enjoyed years ago for his run on Green Lantern where he first introduced us to Kyle Rayner as a new GL and the beginning of Hal Jordan's insanity and fall from the GL's. Marz was a trendsetter back in the 90's, but his work on Voodoo is the work of a teenager who watched the movie Species too many times. The first 3/4 of this book is situated in a strip club and the last little bit features a brutal killing. There are no warnings for how graphic this comic is. DC is advertising their comics for all ages, yet have ramped up the maturity of the content.

Getting past the over the top usage of sex and violence, Voodoo does very little to build interest in where this comic is going. The story feels very tired with the over-done story of alien who is hiding on Earth and a mysterious government agency that chases after such aliens. This is all too similar to the a fore mentioned movie Species, and many other franchises such as X-Files. This lack of originality definitely hurts the comic's ability to spur interest, but the lack of story development also does not help. The first 20 or so pages could have been slimmed down to 5 as the exposition was gratuitous. In consideration of the art, Sami Basri does a commendable job. There is very little detail in his art, resulting in people looking more like silhouettes with a few interior lines. The result of such a style are clean and easily understood illustrations while also not leaving a big impression upon the viewer for remembering the art. Basir does the job well, but not well enough to be remembered against other artists.

Design of Modern Movie Theaters: Encouragement of Privacy

2011-10-07T12:27:00.000-07:00

Last night my wife and I saw The Help. It was a very enjoyable movie that suffered from the same malady as our previous escapades to a theater, restless and talkative audience. This got me thinking of why this is such a prevalent problem with the movies I've seen in the past decade and how I don't remember this being an issue when I was younger. To be fair, perhaps I am turning into a curmudgeon in my old age. Then again this might be due to something else: the changing design of movie theaters.

Black arrows represent the movement of staff while movie is playing. Note the limited amount of movement in a modern theater's design compared to the pre-modern design. The further you sit from the black arrows (staff presence) the greater the afforded privacy, and hence modern designs afford vast areas of privacy and ability to act against social rules.

Before the 2000's most movie theaters were designed with the theater sinking downward from where you entered the room. From my experiences, you would have two doorways at the back of the theater and another two at the bottom. These two entrances led to open pathways that split the theater along the sides, leaving the bulk of seats in the middle, similar to how modern theaters are designed. The difference between modern and earlier theaters is that the entrances now lead you to the middle of the room, where the back half of the theater is angled upward from where the entrance led you. This design breaks the flow of people entering the theater with people walking up to the back of the theater and walking down to the front of the theater. This results in the back of the theater being more secluded as no one needs to walk up to this area unless there are empty seats. Theater staff who check on the movie during a screening never enter the back half of the theater as their business is located in the front. As the staff only need to walk to the front (I don't really know what they do there) and the entrance opens in the middle of the theater, this creates a situation where movie goers know that the staff will never be walking near them. This adds a greater amount of privacy and freedom for them to act whichever way they wish.

I am not suggesting that a theater's staff would solve all the problems of rudeness in theaters. Instead I am suggesting that the possibility of staff entering someone's vicinity will create a sense of paranoia. I believe most movie goers know what is socially acceptable and not acceptable. Privacy encourages someone to act whichever way they wish for there is no fear of punishment. The possibility of the presence of staff removes the sense of privacy and has movie goers acting in a more socially acceptable manner for fear of punishment. By eliminating the traffic of theater staff to the back half of the rooms, designers have unintentionally created a space of privacy that allows for socially unacceptable behavior. The solution to making movie theaters a quieter and more enjoyable place is to eliminate private spaces and induce fear of punishment. To this end, staff must be sent in both directions from the entrance of modern designed movie theaters.

Less is More, DC Comics!

2011-10-06T07:52:00.000-07:00

1 weeks worth of DC comics: too much?

I have enjoyed many of the DC relaunch comics but it would have been better if DC had started with only a few books instead of 52. Fifty-two comics every month is a lot of comics and would leave a new reader beleaguered. It would have been wiser if DC had relaunched with a dozen to 20 comics instead. As it stands you average 13 new issues every week, which will increase as DC unveils various mini-series and one-shots. A smaller number of comics each month also means a better and tighter focus on what you have, increasing the production value. It also means that readers will not be stumped on what to buy, granted due to there being less choice.

But, consider the redundancy. There are a total of four Batman books and another SIX Bat-related books (eg. batgirl); there is definitely room for downsizing! A new reader would have little idea of what Batman book to choose. How would you choose if you've never read a Batman book before but loved the movies and decided you wanted to read the source material!

Compilation of Batman & Batman affiliated comic covers.

DC missed what a lot of the readers were asking for: fewer books and more concise stories. The more books you have for one character, the more difficult it becomes to follow the story arc of that character because inevitably the story crosses over from one book to the next. I will grant you two things: that Detective Comics and Batman have been around forever and it would be sacrilege to cancel either one: and that affiliated books have readers of their own, like Batgirl, and present very different stories and styles of stories. However, I fail to see a reason to publish both 'Batman the Dark Knight' and 'Batman and Robin' when both books discuss concepts already covered in 'Batman' and 'Detective Comics'. It is overkill!

Media Companies Out of Touch

2011-10-04T10:04:00.000-07:00

Media companies are out of touch with the economic crunch most people are feeling. Prices for entertainment have gone up while the average wage has stayed the same and the economic fear machine has marched its way inside most people's noggins.

The average new DVD movie costs over $20 and closer to $30 if on blue ray. If choosing to rent it, you will be looking at a price tag of at least $5 for a new release. If you choose to go out and see the movie in a theater then you're looking at between $13 and $18, depending on the type of screening -eg. regular or 3D. The music industry has not changed much either, with concerts and CDs at or above the price level of the 1990's. Sure you can buy someone's music on iTunes, but that only saves you maybe $5 while not actually receiving a physical copy of your purchase.

Even though the media industry complains that their sales are falling they continue to produce a product that they sell for a higher rate than they did previously while so much of the world cannot afford it. If your market audience cannot afford your product and you are loosing money, then the logical step is to produce a cheaper product that can therefore be sold more cheaply. The other side of the coin is to produce a product with additional value for the same price. However, neither step has been taken. I find this odd.

Even Obama is into Star Wars!

The media industry also complains about people pirating their products. To a degree I do not blame them for their complaint. The companies produce a product that is in no way a 'need' for consumers. They produce wants, and they do so to make a profit so they can continue making the things you enjoy. The problem lies in that their product has become a 'need' in our society. Film and music have become integral threads to our society and to be a part of our society one must have some knowledge about this thread. Ask yourself how many people you know have no knowledge about music or film? Secondly, ask yourself how it would be to hold a conversation with someone and never be able to discuss film or music or the entertainment industry as a whole? I myself often use film and music as conversation starters. When meeting someone new the most obvious connection we could have would be found in music and film.

Pirates! Ahr!

Because the product of the media industry has become a need and the prices are high in reflection to what the average person earns, people are turning to stealing the product. I personally do not pirate music or movies for a number reasons. One, I am not savvy enough to know how to download music and movies; I'm a bit of a Luddite really. Secondly, I feel that pirating is stealing and I like to financially support the artists I appreciate. Nonetheless, I understand why some people are pirating media products because they are components of our cultural reality.

What I hope to see is that the media industry begins to lower the prices of their products to reflect the economic climate we are in today. Perhaps this means the industry will need to spend less money on their products, such as slashing movie budgets. This would not be a bad thing as movies of generations ago did just fine with smaller budgets. Secondly, the media industry cannot expect to make as large of profits as they do now when their consumers have less to spend. It makes little sense for companies to be expecting to make more when their audience has remained virtually the same size and has less to spend. Where do they expect their extra revenue to come from?

Prevalence of the entertainment industry in today's culture & society.

I don't claim to be a financial or economic expert. What I do claim is to have a solid knowledge of culture, and in this instance pop culture. I understand that the media industry's products are vital to many people's lives but in the end we can always do without them. However, to strip ourselves of this product would also mean stripping a thread out of our cultural milieu; for instance Star Wars has become an important and influential component of our society, much like other products like Twilight, Guns 'n Roses, and the Simpsons. The media industry (I hope) must understand that their products need to be produced with less money, sold for less money, and to recoup smaller revenues from their products. Otherwise more people will continuing utilizing alternative ways of obtaining their products and looking for alternative and hence cheaper forms of media products such as Youtube.

Generations in the Movie Theater

2011-10-03T07:01:00.000-07:00

My wife & I recently saw the Lion King in 3D at the movie theaters. We saw the matinee show on a weekday thinking it wouldn't be too busy but would have at least a few families in attendance. Originally, we wanted to see a late night screening of the movie as it would have fewer kids and hence be quieter. However, due to her work schedule we were forced into choosing the matinee.

When attending a family-friendly movie during a matinee time, one should expect children to be also be in attendance. One should also expect child-like behavior. What one should not expect is child-like behavior coming from the parents.

Children can be little shits at times, but it is the role of the parent to teach their child what acceptable social behavior is. My stance here means that I do not blame a child for being a shit but I also do not condone a child being a shit. A child needs to be educated on how not to be a shit. That education comes principally from the parent. If the parent is not providing this education, then I blame them when their kid is acting like a little shit.

Bad parenting comes in many forms.

While watching Lion King, two families with kids in tow sat behind us. There were many families throughout the theater. For the majority of the film the children were very respectful. The children were quiet and still. When the children broke the social rules, such as talking loudly, their parent quietly corrected them. Sometimes a child could be heard loudly asking a question, which often times were pretty damn funny because it was an innocent kid kind of question. This is actually one of the fun aspects to seeing a kid's movie with kids: they ask funny questions that somehow make the movie that much more enjoyable. However, there is a limit to these questions and the way in which they are asked and handled.

The families behind us allowed their kids to do whatever they wanted. The children flailed and carried on as if they were watching a movie at home. But this is not their home! Again, I do not blame the kids for how they were acting, I blame the parents. The father constantly laughed whenever his child did something socially inappropriate and when speaking to the child did so in a loud voice. Often I could hear the father telling his wife how funny the kids were being, in which she also responded in a similarly loud voice.

Are we producing a generation of Lohans?

I won't go so far as to say these families ruined the movie for me, but obviously it ticked me off. It costs a lot of money to see a movie and it pisses me off to have it soiled by ignorant people who obviously have more money than I do as they don't care about spending x amount of dollars at a theater, only to sit through the movie talking and laughing. The financial aspect is definitely one reason why this upset me, but a second is that I worry for the kids. Yeah, here's my sensitive side dammit. I worry how those kids are going to grow up without a social education. Their parents have failed to teach them social etiquette. This is more worrisome because if the parents couldn't teach etiquette in a movie theater then what about more important social arenas such as classrooms and workplaces? The lack of education in the theater is just the tip of the proverbial ice-berg.

An additional thought gives me a glimmer of hope: much of human behavior is cyclical. Music for instance runs in cycles with rock music being predominant for about 13-16 years and is then replaced by pop music for an equivalent amount of time. This makes me wonder if parenting styles also run in cycles, with one generation being firm and the next loose? If this is so, then we are in a loose style of parenting. However, I have also sensed a level of apathy and 'don't give a shit' mentality that I am unaware of from previous generations of parents. It would seem all too often that current parents, particularly older parents with very young children don't give a shit about actually raising the kids. It would seem they only want the ability to say they have kids and to spend marginal amounts of time with their kids. In these cases I suggest the parents purchase a chia pet as it would be safer for everyone involved; I would have suggested a dog but I wouldn't wish that kind of life upon such a noble creature.

Week 3 of the New DC Comics: Part Deux!

2011-10-02T11:04:00.000-07:00

In this post are my brief comments about the other half of the comics released in the third week of the New DC line. None of the six comics discussed below were previous monthly reads, and only one of these was a book I had really read at all. After reading these six comics, four of them were so good I want to continue reading them, while two of them were so God awful I want to ask for my money back!

Green Lantern CORPS: This was a book I had little idea of what to expect from. I read the monthly Green Lantern series, but none of the supporting GL books. This book centers upon two of the Green Lanterns, Stewart & Gardner, who are the only two GL's from Earth who do not have private identities. The book immediately focuses on the issue of their public identities while to a lesser degree builds up the back story of an entity that is murdering GL's from other sectors. I liked how the two main characters came together over how to maintain a normal life on Earth when it was public knowledge that they are GL's, which is counter to most comics that discuss the problems of maintaining a secret identity. In all, the story was enjoyable and I sense a lot of great potential in the book. The art is also also enjoyable with solidly rendered pages. This could easily become one of the sleeper hits of the New DC line!

Legion of Super-Heroes: Welcome to one of the bigger messes that DC put out! This book made very little sense as the reader is thrown into some kind of covert operation involving characters the new reader has no clue about. The story continually flips between three different groups of people without no explanation as to who they are; and no, a listing of their name and super-hero is not enough to build a character from. The art is also sloppy and does not clearly demonstrate what is occurring in each panel. The book also references a book that came out in the first week of the New DC (Legion Lost) that I had not read, which left me even more confused as to what was happening! This book would have been greatly improved with the story focusing on one or two groups of people and more explanations provided for why these events were taken place.

Nightwing: This was a very enjoyable book with solid art, although it did appear that the artist, Eddy Barrows, gave more attention to some pages over others (mainly the middle pages). This book begins a new chapter in the life of Nightwing, aka Dick Grayson, who had recently left the mantle of Batman. Previously, Bruce Wayne had gone international with seeding the world with his versions of Batman. I'm not sure why, but Wayne stopped doing this and returned to Gotham to reclaim the mantle of Batman which left Grayson to go back to being Nightwing.

This first issue examines Dick Grayson's past and introduces a new villian, while also providing a narrative about how being Batman changed the way he now handles being a super-hero. I really enjoyed the development and introduction of Nightwing's character and I see promise in where this story is going. My only complaint is that I am still confused why some characters in the New DC comics have their origins redone in the first issue while other characters are presented as coming straight off of where they were left in their previous books. This is most evident in the Batman books where it seems very little if anything has actually changed in the character's lives except that a new chapter in their lives is being presented -not a reboot as DC said would happen. Furthermore, as an avid reader of the Batman books, I find it very disappointing that DC is not spending more time on exploring Dick Grayson's departure and Bruce Wayne's return as Batman. If DC is not going to be wiping the slate clean on the Bat books, then they need to at least clean up the issues left unresolved; instead, it seems DC wants us to ignore the whole thing! Nightwing, while being a strong book from DC's new line, is frustrating for there is little reason for the book to have been renumbered and waters down DC's reasoning for the relaunches -to reboot their comics so they become accessible to new readers.

Red Hood & the Outlaws: Welcome to the second book I discuss which was a disappointment. To be fair, this book is far superior to the Legion book and the principle reason this book fails is because of its depiction of the character Starfire. Kenneth Rocafort pencils the book with a loose and angular style that stands out against the other DC books. This is a compliment as I really enjoyed this book's art but did wish that backgrounds were filled in more (too much negative space), and some of the paneling did not use up as much of the page as they could have (again, leaving too much negative space). The story line was fun and I greatly enjoyed the concept of the book and the introduction of the mysterious background of the Red Hood character. However, the character of Starfire is presented as some floozy bimbo with Superman 'esque powers and wish to sleep with any man in a 100 yard radius. This was a weak move by Lobdell, the writer, as the other two main characters (Red Hood & Roy Harper) are bold, funny, and dynamic. It feels that Starfire was an afterthought of a character and is no way a flattering example of what a female super-hero can be. This is highlighted by how great other female characters have been used in the New DC comics such as Catwoman, Batwoman, and the to be mentioned Wonder Woman and Supergirl.

Supergirl: Holy crap this book blew me away! I read this book in under a minute partially because there was very little text and partially because the introduction of the character Supergirl had me in a headlock of awesomeness! The dialogue was brief for sure, but the combination of the brief dialogue and the engaging art made for a truly worthy read. While the dialogue was brief, the plotting of the book told another side of the story, which was told very well and demonstrated how well the writer, Michael Green, and the artist, Mike Johnson, worked together. The art, by the way, was really incredible. Supergirl's new costume looked really great and is an appreciation of a more modern design that incorporated the classic elements of Superman with a more alien, angled lines. I also appreciated how this book was a relaunch /reboot of the character. The reader needed no previous knowledge of the character when beginning this book and was exactly what expected from DC in their New 52 line of comics. This was a superb comic that I will be adding to my monthly collection for sure!

Wonder Woman: Yet another hit by DC comics! In contrast to Supergirl, Wonder Woman #1 presented a much longer and more involved story, but like Supergirl this issue began a story that the reader needed no previous knowledge base. Wonder Woman was presented as a secondary character who acted as a detective for the character Zola who was attacked by mysterious, supernatural like creatures. Wonder Woman's origin was not divulged in this issue and it seemed to be picking up from wherever the previous book left off, however this book did not seem to reference any previous events of the earlier story lines. The story also featured some great action sequences and some truly grotesque moments that are superbly rendered by the highly capable artist of Cliff Chiang. Again, this was a very strong book that I greatly enjoyed despite it not seeming to be a true reboot.

Week 3 of the New DC

2011-10-01T10:48:00.000-07:00

Encouraged with how much I enjoyed the few comics I read of the initial two weeks of the DC comics relaunch, I decided to go for broke (literally) and buy all of the new DC comics that came out in the third and fourth weeks of the relaunch. In this post I briefly discuss 6 of the third week issues. Out of the 6, only one (Batman) was a comic I previously collected on a monthly basis. Going forward I will also be collecting Catwoman on a monthly basis and will try the next issue of Captain Atom as these were the two strongest, besides Batman that I talk about here.

Batman: Written by Scott Snyder and drawn by Greg Capullo, this was a great read that like the previous Detective Comics issue, brought the Dark Knight back to his roots -as a gritty detective! I loved how the book opened with a great fight scene in Arkham Asylum and the narrative text discussed how the citizens of Gotham viewed their city. Their view had become bleak and Bruce Wayne was determined to change that view through the utilization of both his personas!

Interior page.

On a side note, I loved Greg Capullo's art. I remember his art from his earlier days working on Spawn back in the 1990's, but haven't seen anything he's done since. In Batman he's retained his Todd McFarlane (creator of Spawn) inspired style but provided it with cleaner lines. My only negative comment is that Capullo tended to make some of the characters too similar looking, such as Bruce Wayne and the new character of Lincoln March.

Birds of Prey: This book presents more or less what I was expecting from the DC relaunch: a book that starts from the beginning. The above mentioned Batman did not do this, but did present the beginning of a new Batman story. Birds of Prey however, presented the formation of a new team. The team is presented as an entity that had been previously established but has to now find new members.

The story is of a group of female crime fighters that all have ties to other superheroes, which kind of makes the ladies here seem like sidekicks to their male superhero counterparts (eg. Canary is from the Green Arrow comics). Regardless, this team can kick some but and showcases strong female characters. The storyline is interesting but does not stray far from the status quo of comic stories. The artwork is also solid but not too flashy. This is a book I could go either way on for reading again in the future; as in, if it's a slow week at the comic store I may pick up another issue.

Blue Beetle: I absolutely love this character from the cartoons but am not too familiar with the comic book source material. The first issue was great for someone like me who was not familiar with the character as it starts with the origin of the character. The story is told well but lacked the humor I expected from the cartoon, making the story feel dry. In the comic, the main character obtained his power in a happenstance and non-memorable way, unlike other characters such as Spider-Man who was bit by a spider or the Hulk saving a person's life during a gamma bomb test. Those are memorable origin stories and the Blue Beetle origin story was weak in comparison. Additionally, the story was rushed and did not have sufficient build-up for me to care about the characters that were being affected. While a reader would likely expect, and perhaps demand the appearance of the Blue Beetle to appear in the first issue, in the case of this comic I feel it would have worked better if the first issue was spent instead on building the foundation for the characters and storyline and then introduced the Blue Beetle in the second issue. However, the story has some potential and I liked how most of the characters are Latino, which is a nice surprise to see in a comic book as the vast majority of the characters are white.

In regards to the art, it was solid but more care was needed in inking as the lines were muddled. I hate it when inkers use too thick of brushes when the lines need to be crisper.

Captain Atom: This was a surprisingly great read! I was not familiar with the character of Captain Atom and didn't know what to expect. What I found was some very well illustrated pages by Freddie Williams II and a very interesting story with loads of potential by J.T. Krul. The story throws the reader mid-way through the career of Captain Atom, with the superhero already well established in the world. However, his powers had become unstable. From there the book begins the deconstruction of the hero. I had the impression that the book did not want to start from the beginning of the character's story as the deconstruction of the hero would only be successful if it started off with a pre-established foundation of who the character was, which was quickly established in the first few pages of the book which explains the situation to new readers and notifies older readers that what they previously knew of the character was still true. In all, Captain Atom is a book I will read for a few more issues at least!

Interior page.

Catwoman: Hands down the best book out of the bunch I'm discussing in this post and is one I had not previously collected on an ongoing basis. I was absolutely floored by the beautiful artwork of Guillem March. His style seems as though it's a mesh of Joe Kubert and a sketchier form of Manga. His inks are dripping with style and I loved his usage of perspective; Guillem really thought out how he would illustrate this book! On the side of writing, Judd Winick presents a powerful female character. A woman who is confident, sexual, and loving -a real and well rounded character. I really appreciated as to how Winick gives us a female character that is anything but a stereotype! This is a character who is situated in a very complex story told in under 30 pages. Of these pages, the final few will make you open the window as it gets really steamy! This is definitely one book I will be reading on a monthly basis!

DC Universe Presents: Deadman: I am not familiar with the character of Deadman and was interested to see that DC chose this character as one of their leading heroes in the new 52 line. This book retells the origin of Deadman through narrative flashbacks and starts off a new chapter in the character's life. The character is conflicted and begins to question his role as an individual who must aid the living with their problems in order for his own soul (?) to be saved; kinda reminds me of Quantum Leap actually. The art by Bernard Chang is clear and straight forward, but the covers have fantastically powerful illustrations by Ryan Sook. The writing is also engaging and I like where they are headed with the character. However there is something missing from the book that didn't draw me in. I can't place it, but I was left feeling very 'meh' about the character and where the story was headed. Perhaps I would have been more favorable towards this book if it had not been for the other comics I read before it. The competition in this group of week 3 books was too stiff, and in particular Captain Atom and Catowman presented much stronger stories.

A Tip to Displaying Comic Books for Sale

2011-09-30T09:09:00.000-07:00

On my most recent visit to my local comic book store I decided to wander through the independent comic racks. I have been thinking recently that I have been purchasing too much of the mainstream material, which is not a statement that what DC and Marvel is producing is poor but rather that I was hungry for something a little different that didn't involve spandex and mystical powers.

While perusing the racks of comics I noticed how some areas of the store where not utilized as highly as others, and how people went through the older racks more quickly than the area that held the week's new releases. The principle problem is that comics are placed on racks that have rows too low to the ground. I understand that space is a premium in comic stores and you don't want the racks too high because then it offers privacy for shoplifters. However, most shoppers will not bend over, kneel down, or even glance downward to see what's on the bottom of the rack. This means that roughly 50% of the product is not even being seen!

White shelves help a lot!

The solution? Place larger items on the bottom of the racks. Use large hard covers, trade paperbacks, and toys to fill in the bottom of the racks. Then have the comics on the top. This will leave less room for some of the comics but what does it matter if they weren't selling anyways? Use the comics that aren't selling as: promotional giveaways, discounted books, compiled into sets o be sold, put in boxes with the other back issues, or list them on your online store (or e-bay if you don't have that).

Dark, cramped, & uninviting comic store.

Another benefit of having fewer comics on the racks is that it provides a sense of urgency to the buyer. When you walk into a store with comics spilling out the door the customer will think that a sale must be on the horizon because of the over stock, which also implies the store is not selling a lot of comics and may go out of business. Further, the more issues one sees the less likely they will believe they need that item! Fewer issues means scarcity; the book is popular and must be a good read /investment. So in the end, it will financially benefit a comic book store owner to have fewer comics on display. Take those extra copies and tuck them away in the back until room opens up again on the shelves! It's how every other store in the world works, so why should a comic store be so different?

Most comic covers are dark colored.

Another benefit is that less product makes a brighter and more inviting store. All too often comic book stores are crammed with product. For one, it makes it difficult for staff to keep clean when there is tons of non-moving product constantly collecting dust. Secondly, most comic books have dark colored covers. With all of this dark colored mass comes a dark looking store. Dark looking stores are not inviting, unless you're a Goth (no insult intended). Brighter and cleaner stores means people will feel more welcomed. It also has the effect of keeping people in your store longer because they feel invited. Just because some comic fans still live in their parent's basement does not mean they want to also shop there! Also, a brighter and cleaner store is more attractive for that new audience /shopper which every store owner wants to see more of. If a comic fan brings a non-comic reading friend into the store, that friend will be more inclined to return on their own if they have a positive experience. How can you expect someone to have a positive experience when they enter a store that is dark and overcrowded?

Model your store after the Simpsons!

I suggest these thoughts because I earnestly wish nothing but continued success for the comic book industry. I love reading comics and want to see more people reading them too! I also know that the chances of me opening a store are slim to nil, so I share my ideas on how I would I would run a successful comic store in the hopes that a shop owner will read this, take my advice, and become more profitable. A more profitable comic store is a place that will thrive and support the industry, which in turn means I will be able to continue buying the comics I love!

Trip to Jamaica: prt I

2011-09-28T08:07:00.000-07:00

A little over a year ago I had never been outside of Canada or the States. That all changed with a trip to Jamaica back in October of 2010.

This trip was realized through my wife winning a contest at work, allowing for an affordable and quick trip to a resort at an island destination of our choice. However, I had never yearned for tropical destinations. Sand between the toes was fine but not in my thoughts. I had never made friends with water. The carnival atmosphere of the gluttonous and sloth filled resorts had also never been in mind. Yet, there I was to embark on a trip that involved all of these.

Lifting off from Calgary we flew through the murky skies towards Toronto. From there it was a continual flight to Jamaica, touching down in Montego Bay. We entered the run down airport, meandering through the long hallways towards customs. The air was cool and damp, with murals adorning most of the walls. A large group of people pooled at the customs area. Customs was fairly quick and the biggest hassle was figuring out how to fill out the paperwork for entering the country.

view from bus

Upon leaving customs we entered another area with even more people. The area was filled with kiosks for the various resorts and transportation companies. Our resort, Bahia Principe, was sussed out and we were told that a bus was waiting outside. A man came up to us to carry our bags to the bus. Once at the bus he demanded to be paid for this 20 foot-long carrying service; I refused and he left begrudgingly. We felt awkward.

crafts sold on roadside

Once the bus was boarded we again flew, this time a little closer to the ground. Our resort was located in Runaway Bay, which worked out to be about an hour's drive from the airport in Montego Bay.

The highways in Jamaica are narrow and lined with a mosaic of inspiration. Hillsides drenched in green and studded with small hand crafted buildings. Vehicles passed each other along the turns with their pedals perpetually stuck to the floor; the bus was no different. The exotic-ness was intoxicating. We rapidly approached a pre-arranged stop with the driver's hopes you would prematurely begin your Western spending practices. A tall shack with an odd bar /jerked foods emporium was pointed out to us, along with a pleasant gentleman trying with sweat on his brow to sell us hand crafted goods. I gravitated towards a ginger beer and browsed the man's crafts, later on regretting I did not pick up anything.

After our stop it was roughly another 30 minutes of driving before we reached our resort. Exiting the bus we kindly tipped our driver. We walked into the main foyer to check in and were greeted with tropical alcohol based drinks. The large foyer had an open concept, with an absence of doors and a large plants adorning the corners. A large oddly shaped white sculpture stood at the room's center, commanding attention and tranquility. Bus boys ran about busily and fat tourists waded through the thick humidity.

Our room was splendid, with a picturesque four-post bed, tiled floors, a large bathroom, a small fridge and an outdated tv. The balcony was of a moderate size and had a table with a few chairs. From the view of our second story balcony (which also happened to be the top floor), we had a west facing view of the mountains. The highway came down from the side of the mountain but hardly made a noise from where we stood. The resort's beach could also be easily seen from our room. The large pavilion area where the resort nestled its gift shops and late night dance area was directly in front of our room, but like the highway we rarely noticed the noise.

After the flight and drive, we slowly unpacked and continued to poke through the room. Opening the fridge I found cans of local beer and a bottle of water. With beer in hand, my wife & I relaxed on the balcony. Soaking in the sun and beauty we knew right away that Jamaica would make a perfectly fine place for a vacation.

Terra Nova

2011-09-27T09:57:00.000-07:00

Terra Nova premiered tonight. This epic, 2-hour long premier was produced by Steven Spielberg and has obvious nods to his previous works. It features time travel, the future, a dystopia, a utopia, marines /military, and of course, dinosaurs. Makes sense right?

The first thing I considered about Terra Nova was whether the dinosaurs and time travel were going to be used as a distraction from the fact that the show has a weak premise, terrible story, and laughable acting. The beginning of the episode definitely had the first two, but the acting was passable. The story was predictable and for the most part unoriginal. The show begins in the future with a family escaping their dying world. To do so, they must travel millions of years back in time, however they do not go back to an earlier Earth but rather an earlier parallel dimension Earth -Terra Nova. This family traveled with a large group of other people and are the tenth group to have done so, with their home Earth still inhabited by millions of other people hoping to escape as well. Once the family is brought back to the past they find the settlement that the previous time-traveling groups had built and discover that not only are there dinosaurs but that this utopia still has a lot of the problems they are familiar with from their own time line: war & politics.

The Shannon family, featured in Terra Nova.

Where this show is most weak is in the dynamics of the starring family. Case in point, when the father reunites with his family the children immediately feel estranged. The father had been in jail for about 2 years, meanwhile the family had to trudge forward. When learning that they could escape their Earth through the time travel project, the family immediately arranged for a way that the father could escape his imprisonment and Earth with them. Upon reuniting in their new homes on Terra Nova, the son runs away and defies his father; acting as a teenager typically does and irrationally lambasting his father for being away. The youngest daughter doesn't remember who his father is since he's been away for years and quickly vanishes from the house; only to be found shortly after with a big family hug. The older daughter is a geek who follows her parent's wishes, much like many other stereotypical daughters in big families on TV. Not too original of a family dynamic, but you add dinosaurs and it magically becomes different right?

Promotional poster provided at 2011 SDCC

As this 2-hour epic continues, the storyline gradually becomes more complex. A fair bit of story is told in this pilot episode but the pacing seemed slow for the first hour. The problem of pacing would likely not have been an issue if it had not been for the plethora of commercials. After becoming ever-so irritated with the commercials I began to time out how long each segment of the show was before another commercial break occurred. It turned out that each segment lasted an average of 10 minutes, and a few lasted for a whopping 4 minutes! This is ridiculous and is likely due to how damn expensive this show was to make. Fox had spent millions on the special effects (which were pretty darn good) and more millions on advertisement (I remember seeing posters & such at the 2010 San Diego Comic Con for this show). Due to the price tag, Fox charged a high price for each commercial spot and apparently made sure there were plenty of these spots. Without all the commercials, the show is actually about 1 hour and 26 minutes long!

All in all, I'll be back to see the second episode. I'm curious as to where the story will go and heck, the dinosaurs are a lot of fun to see. However, I don't know how long my interest will hold as this is not the best nor original sci-fi show I've ever seen, as recently canceled shows such as Stargate Universe and Caprica were much better.

SNL Season Premier

2011-09-26T11:59:00.000-07:00

I have not watched a full episode of SNL in years because it has been painfully unfunny. It has not been funny since the 90's and I am not the only one to think so. I have heard that the past few seasons of SNL have been getting better, particularly with the Andy Sandberg and Justin Timerblake skits. I have caught and been impressed by the recent political sketches they have done since the last US election, especially the spoofing of Sarah Palin by Tina Fey. I decided to watch and give the show another chance with last Saturday's SNL season premier.

The season premier of SNL was hosted by Adam Baldwin, and Radiohead was the musical act. Adam Baldwin has been one of the strongest and funniest hosts of SNL and Radiohead is one of my favorite bands, so automatically there were two reasons for me to watch. Another reason to watch is that the majority of SNL sketches posted on the internet (especially Youtube) are quickly taken down because NBC has a strict rule against their shows being re-broadcasted over the net. This rule is so strict that I can't find the full episodes even on the NBC website itself, forcing myself to watch the episode on TV.

The season premier began strong with a spoof of the recent republican presidential candidate Q&A that was incredibly funny. The jokes and impersonations were spot on. However, the premier quickly lost steam following this. Each subsequent sketch became less funny as though they had realized that most people won't stick around for the end anyways. The commercials seemed to become more frequent as though they were scrambling to fill their time block. This made it all the more difficult to watch the entire episode as the sketches became less funny and each individual sketch had a chunk of commercials that immediately followed it. Radiohead, however, was brilliant, but again sandwiched between long commercial breaks.

In the end, the commercial breaks became longer than the sketches themselves. In all, I doubt that the SNL premier actually ran for more than a half hour and had over an hour worth of commercials. It is the commercials that really killed the show and are the prime reason why I will not watch SNL again this year unless they have another all political spoof episode as I feel this is all they can legitimately do anymore. Even though each subsequent sketch was worse than the last, I would be inclined to still watch (on the hope of finding a gem later in the episode) if I did not have to wait through 3 to 4 minutes of commercials between each skit. The flow of the show is broken up too much by these commercials and when the sketches become increasingly weak I don't feel a strong enough draw to wait out the commercials. As the sketches are so hit & miss, this makes SNL the perfect show to be presented on-line as people can watch particular sketches and not have to wade through horrendous amounts of commercials in the hope of finding that gem of a sketch. SNL is failing because the sketch comedy is not working anymore on TV and I sincerely hope NBC starts presenting their show online instead, or perhaps start investing in better and more writers.

Week 2 of the New DC Comics!

2011-09-22T11:54:00.000-07:00

On the week of September 14th came the second installment of the new DC comics! A total of 13 number one issues were released that week, with me buying five of them. I would love to buy them all, but as a responsible adult :), I just couldn't afford all of them! However, I did want to pick up Grifter #1 but it had sold out within an hour or so of the store opening! Insane!

From the five issues I picked up only one was a disappointment. I had previously been collecting two of the books on a monthly basis and will likely continue. The other two are definitely monthly reads now! Below are brief comments on each of the books I picked up:

Batman & Robin: A solid read with equally solid art. This is one of the books I had previously collected and the renumbered book met expectations. The book focuses on the relationship between Bruce Wayne and his son, Damian, who is the acting Robin. Previously the book had Bruce Wayne's son being partnered with Dick Grayson, who was the original Robin that later overtook the mantel of Batman (long story). In the renumbered DC comics, Batman is again portrayed by Bruce Wayne. This story begins with the relationship and roles previously established but Robin is still in the process of learning how to be a superhero, and more importantly a son /man. While I enjoyed this book, I wish that the story of how Bruce's son became Robin was explored in the first issue instead of placing the reader somewhere later on in the story.

Batwoman: This is one of my more highly anticipated books because the previous work on the character was so strong. The previous material was written and drawn by J.H. Williams III, who has continued his vision. This first issue did not disappoint but like Batman & Robin I wish the story had begun earlier in the character's career. The book does begin at the beginning of a new chapter for the character as a new villain and challenges for the heroin are introduced. Besides the story, the art is fantastic and is perhaps the best illustrated book that DC is producing -although Paquette's art in Swamp Thing deserves special attention too. The cover has a gorgeous water color painting by Wiliams that (refreshingly) ties into the story within the book. Williams also uses two different styles of art to tell the story, where a more fluid and painterly style is used when Batwoman is acting as a superhero and a more traditional comic style is used when the main character is not in her superhero persona; makes me think of David Mack's art.

Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E: Going in I thought this was to be one of my favorite reads. I knew nothing about this character and it is not a book I had previously read. The title seems ridiculous and the premise is perhaps even more off kilter as it stars Frankenstein (the monster, not the scientist) who leads a team of ultra-secret government monster /agents who go after other monsters that threaten global security. This should leave tons of room for the writer and artist to have a lot of fun, however the efforts fall flat. The writer of the book is Jeff Lemire who I have previously admired because of his outstanding work on Essex County & Sweet Tooth. These books were written with great imagination and feeling. This book does not exemplify either of these previous qualities and instead offers a tired and frankly lame story that one would think was produced by a 14-year-old. In the future I think I'll be passing on this title.

Green Lantern: Like the previously mentioned books, GL begins with a new chapter to the main character's life instead of at the character's beginning, which is what I thought the whole point of the New DC was supposed to be. GL is a book I have been reading for the previous few years and the new GL picks up directly from where the last issue ended. This left me VERY confused as to what the point of the renumbering was! The creative staff of the book, Geoff Johns (writer) & Doug Mahnke (illustrator) remains the same, which again works against the idea of changing up the books. Nonetheless, Johns and Mahnke do an excellent job on the book, producing an interesting and exciting work that I will continue to read. My only problem is that this book, in particular, left me confused as NOTHING had changed from the previous GL book.

Superboy: Here we go DC! Finally a book that begins with the origin /introduction of the character. This is what I had been expecting from DC in each of their renumbered comics. This book is written by Scott Lobdell who presents an interesting story of Superboy being born in a test-tube as an experiment by a secret company with equally secretive motives for doing so. The characters are strong and there is plenty of plot lines presented in the first issue to keep this book going for quite some time. R.B. Silva draws the book with a clean, traditional comic style that is very enjoyable to look at. The art isn't fancy and does not have a particularly unique style, but it is strong and well executed. I've never collected Superboy before but after reading this first issue I will surely be back for more!

In all I would have to say the biggest and best surprise was found in Superboy. The best continuation of expectations goes to Batwoman. Batman & Robin and Green Lantern met expectations, but I had expected more from the stories. Frankenstein is the hands-down biggest disappointment because I expected a lot more from Lemire, but in retrospect was still better than the previous week's Green Arrow.

First Week of DC's New 52

2011-09-21T16:54:00.000-07:00

Following DC comics release of the re-numbered and re-imagined Justice League came 13 or so other similarly styled comics each week during the month of September. It is beyond my budget to pick up each of these comics as I still collect books from other publishers -sorry DC. However, I did want to try some of the new comics to see how good or bad they were.

In all I picked up 5 of the DC comics in the first week. Out of those five, only one was a true disappointment. The other four were good enough to make me want to continue reading them. In the second week I picked up yet another 5 books, and again only 1 was a disappointment and the other four will likely become regular, monthly reads. Below are a few comments on the five books I picked up during the first week. In future posts I'll comment on the books that came out after the first week.

Action Comics: The art is very strong and features a young Superman who is still understanding his limitations. While not explicit, it seems that this book is taking place between five and ten years before the present. In the book, Superman's powers are not yet fully realized and his relationship to Louis is virtually nil. Lex Luthor is still a respected business man who is just discovering Superman, and of course his hatred for him. This book made me excited for what DC was doing and was an exceptionally fun title to immerse myself into!

Batgirl: I had high expectations for this book because the writer, Gail Simone, is a huge fan favorite for her work on the Secret 6 book -also published by DC. The artwork in Batgirl is solid but nothing too grabbing and the same can be said for the writing. A bit of a disappointment as there was not too much new or inventive being offered for this character as I felt Batgirl was being portrayed as a cliche of a superhero. Despite this, the premise of the storyline offered a few highlights that piqued my interest enough to warrant further reading.

Detective Comics: Tony Daniel! The name is enough to sell me on this title! Daniel both draws and writes this title and manages to do both tasks with considerable skill. The story is definitely dark and twisted, with Batman presented as a detective (as he should be presented) chasing down the notorious evil doers of Gotham, notably the Joker! Great read!

Green Arrow: This was the disappointment of the week. The art is OK, which is disappointing to say since it is Dan Jurgens who penciled the comic. Jurgens was once one of the biggest names in comic books back in the 1990's with his work on the death of Superman series; however, it would seem his art has not matured since the 90's and has perhaps become a little lazy. There are numerous panels that cried out for more detail (especially in the buildings), and the figures seemed stilted and overly posed in each shot. Furthermore, Geore Perez (who is also a legendary artist of the 90's) inked the book. Perez's inks are muddy and thick, almost sloppy. The writing is similarly stilted and the story is down right boring with the over-used concept of rich boy playing crime fighter and very little else added to make it stand out against the other 52 DC titles. I'm a little shocked at the low quality of this book but can only suggest that it was due to a tight time frame that the creators had to work within. Regardless, I am not exactly inclined to pick up another issue of this book any time soon.

Swamp Thing: This is another title that surprised me, but in a good way! The first issue of this title was exciting as I had little idea where the story could go and each page unleashed a flurry of beautiful art by the highly talented Yanick Paquette. Paquette offers some of the most striking visuals in any of the DC titles, with beautiful composition, soft lines, range of visions and elements, and so on. Paquette alone makes the book worth picking up! But Scott Snyder adds another element that makes this perhaps the best book DC pushed out. Snyder presents an interesting story of internal and external conflict. Snyder writes Swamp Thing for both the old and new reader, allowing for the older readers to be rewarded for their patronage to the character while also making the book assessable to new readers like myself. This is a great, great, great book that I can't recommend enough!

DC's New 52 & Flashpoint Mini-Series

2011-09-20T09:51:00.000-07:00

Flashpoint has now ended and DC comics is mid-way through releasing the renumbered and (slightly) re-imagined monthly comics. In all there are 52 of these new comics, most of which are comics that had already been published on a monthly basis and are now being reset to issue #1. A few, however, are comics that feature characters that did not previously have a monthly book about them, or at least they have not had a monthly book in a long time, such as Animal Man and Grifter.

Without giving away the entire plot or conclusion of the Flashpoint miniseries, it ended on a fairly high note but the storyline felt incredibly rushed. The storyline made sense but the characters and motivations could have been fleshed out a lot more; in particular I wished that the role of Louis Lane and the rise of Aquaman and Wonder Woman could've been explained more. This is a typical problem for the big story arcs that companies like Marvel and DC have been producing. The book's story lines are well executed but are thin due to the constraints of working within 28 or so pages. Flashpoint would have been greatly improved upon by making each issue about 10 or 20 pages longer. The cost of the additional pages could have easily been found in cutting out the glossy covers and premier paper stocks. A second point here is that the conclusion of Flashpoint did not seamlessly flow into the newly numbered DC comics that were supposedly directly impacted by this event. Perhaps a stand alone epilogue issue would have helped, but overall I think a one or two page nod to the Flashpoint series would have been nice in some of the more major first issue titles like Justice League, Superman, or Batman.

The first week of DC releasing the renumbered titles involved the release of only one comic, Justice League. This title was written by Geoff Johns and drawn by Jim Lee. Johns seems to be the DC equivalent of Marvel's Matt Fraction or Bendis who are responsible for writing and creating close to all the major events at Marvel. Johns is a highly skilled scribe and I best know him from his work on Green Lantern where he has produce ambitious and well executed story lines. Jim Lee is a legend in comic book art and I have found his art maturing over the past 5 to 10 years. His art has become increasingly detailed and his lines more focused (less frayed). The combination of these two talents, Johns and Lee, made Justice League worthwhile picking up without even considering what the story was about. However, the story proved to be fantastic as it explains how the Justice League came together during a time when superheroes were still mythical and not well understood by the general public. The story line takes place in the past while the other first issue books focus on what the characters are currently doing. This is a nice strategy as it uses Justice League to explain the new DC world while allowing the other books to explore that world. The issue is also great for it provides a sense of mystery and excitement in that the reader cannot readily guess how the story will come to a close. With the renumbering of the issues and declaration by DC that the new books will be a departure from the old, one cannot assume how the Justice League will be formed based on what has occurred previously in DC comics. In all this was a strong first foot forward for DC comics and definitely has me continuing to pick up Justice League!

Lego Porn!

2011-09-19T13:14:00.000-07:00

Have you heard of food porn? I'm not talking about some naked douche rolling in a pile of foie gras; I'm referring to insanely good looking dishes of ridiculous food that's then photographed. Commonly the photograph is of a meal someone is about to indulge in and then promptly blog about to explain just how ridiculously good it was. Well, I think I've just found the equivalence of this in Lego: meet the 180 lb, 43,000 piece, hand-unbelievably-ADD laden-crafted Lego Star Wars the Clone Wars Venator Class Star Destroyer!

A guy by the name of Iomedes has some absolutely insane skills with building Lego sets based on machines from popular movies, most commonly Star Wars; examples of his creations can be found here at his blog. This behemoth is impressive for the amount of time it must have taken to construct, but also for the massive stock pile of various Lego bricks he has at his disposal and the ingenious amount of planning required to figure out how to construct this monstrosity! The Star Destroyer is truly a work of art!

Video of the Star Destoryer that Iomedes posted on Youtube.

Star Wars Lego: The Movie (2011)

2011-09-18T12:15:00.000-07:00

Star Wars Lego is one of my favorite collectibles /toys out there, so it shouldn't be a surprise that I was pretty excited to hear they had made a Star Wars Lego movie! The movie uses the same level of graphics as those found in the Star Wars Lego video games, which are OK graphics that are not as clean as Pixar's but better than most straight to DVD computer animations. The movie is enchanting not because of it's graphics but because of its use of whimsy and the apparent love for Star Wars that the movie creators have.

Screen shot from the Lego Star Wars movie.

The Star Wars Lego movie is a lot of fun and is not intended to be a serious contribution to the Star Wars canon. It offers a simple 20 minute long story about a young orphan boy who tags along with a group of young padawans as they tour the Jedi temple buildings on Coruscant. Things go awry and the young orphan, Ian, tags along with Yoda on a mission to retrieve stolen battle plans. In the end Ian is shown to be a major character in the later movies -watch it to find out who he really is! Additional to the movie are a series of shorts that feature random whimsical stories within the Star Wars universe and again using the foil of Lego. These featurettes alone make the movie worth picking up!

Walmart sold a specially wrapped package of the Star Wars Lego movie that included a Star Wars Lego mini-figure! This is the first mini-figure I have picked up and is available only within the special packages of the Star Wars Lego movie because the mini-figure is of the movie's main character: Ian!

If looking to buy this figure separate from the movie package, there are a few characteristics to look for. The main feature to a mini-figure is that the legs do not move. For the Ian mini-figure, the legs are beige colored and are roughly half the length of the torso. The torso has a simple image of a collard shirt with the first few buttons undone at the neck. The head is peach colored and has a unique smirk to it, with the hair being fairly detailed.

Summer Comicbook Block Busters: Marvel vs. DC

2011-08-19T17:46:00.000-07:00

Fear Itself (main miniseries) #2

Every year there seems to be at least one sprawling event that impacts the majority of comic books from a particular company. Those particular companies are Marvel and DC. This year DC has gone forward with the Flashpoint storyline. This sprawling series will lead into the renumbering and tweaking of all their characters that has grabbed national and international headlines. Marvel's epic summer odyssey is entitled Fear Itself. This epic has not garnered anywhere near the same attention as DC's storyline, mainly because the story does not have the same kind of dramatic impact on future Marvel comics.

Cover to Flashpoint (main minseries) #1

Fear Itself off shoot miniseries

The structure of the summer time epic stories is pretty routine for both Marvel and DC. You have one miniseries that is written and drawn by an A-list talent. The main series features the core of the summer time story. Shooting off from this are the miniseries. These are a line of shorter stories that compliment the main miniseries. These stories are often written and drawn by virtual unknowns. I believe that the companies use these, almost throw-away stories, as a device to test these creators. If they do well on these short stories then they might come back to work on more permanent and important comics. A third aspect is the tie-in stories that are featured in the regular, on-going series such as Batman in DC and Avengers in Marvel. This brings in the regular readers from the company's flagship titles. It forces those regular readers to also read the main miniseries because they are left with little clue as to what is occurring in the comic they purchase monthly. Once the event is over there is usually some sort of fallout which all too recently entails a renumbering of the most affected regular series. This is why over the past few years (much to my chagrin) the Avengers has been rebooted to issue number 1 multiple times following each Marvel summertime story, and why DC is rebooting all of its books to issue 1 following the Flashpoint series.

Avengers #15 ties into Fear Itself

These summertime epic story lines are fun to read but recently have become too cumbersome to follow and have results that mean very little to the world of the publisher's characters. They are cumbersome because there are so many tie-in issues and while the main miniseries does tell the majority of the story there are still key concepts included only in the tie-ins and offshoot miniseries. The story lines have weak results because you know that after a year or two down the road the results will be washed away as in the case of Marvel's Civil War story line that resulted in the death of Captain America. A few years later the good Captain re-emerged, lessening the results of the Civil War story line.

Flashpoint off shoot miniseries

My point is that DC and Marvel need to tighten up their epic summertime stories and to make the results more impressive and lasting. By tightening up I refer to having fewer off shoot story lines and tie-in issues. It is unfair to the regular reader to be forced into purchasing a new series just to understand the story that they have been devoted to for years. It is also tiresome to see nonsensical stories such as the over usage of certain characters like Wolverine. In the Fear Itself story Wolverine appears in multiple comics and yet each comic features him in a completely separate story that occurs at the same time. DC's Flashpoint series is even more frustrating than the Fear Itself book for at least a reader can jump right into Fear Itself without needing to be caught up on some other book. The story truly begins in Fear Itself. Elements of the story that are the result of previous story lines are explained within Fear Itself, unlike Flashpoint. I was completely lost in Flashpoint because, unbeknownst to myself this story line was building off a year or more worth of story from the Flash comic that was not explained in the Flashpoint main miniseries. The summer time major stories should not require previous reading but in the end encourage additional reading. I think Marvel understands this concept much more than DC does.

Flashpoint (main miniseries) #3

Death of Cpt. America

The second point is that the results need to be more worthwhile. This would increase the collectibility of the comics and make them more attractive to read. If readers knew that what would occur in those pages would include actions written in stone, then the readers would recognize that this is truly a must read; eg. Captain America actually dies and never comes back. These books would become more collectible because the events would be told once, and only once while also having important contributions to future publications; eg. the story of Captain America's death told only once and have far reaching implications on all subsequent comics.

List of Flashpoint comics for the month of May & June

As a side note, it is becoming increasingly frustrating to see a renumbering of comics follow each summer time event. This renumbering never lasts, as Marvel has reverted their flagship titles back to their original numbering a few times in the past 5 or so years; eg. Spider-Man and more recently the Incredible Hulk. DC argues that such renumbering makes their titles more attractive to new readers because they offer a jumping on point where you know it will feature the beginning of a new story, not to mention a perception of value as you are purchasing the first of a series and not issue 500-something of an ongoing storyline. What the publishers don't realize is that these are all perceptions that can be overly indulged. If you continue to publish comics that are rebooted to issue 1 every few years then people will know that the appearance of the #1 means little to nothing.

Renumbering of books is pandering to an outside audience and is neglectful of the core audience, like myself and other fanboys that regularly purchase these comics. Similarly, Kevin Smith (at the Calgary Red State premier) pointed out the pitfalls of not pleasing your core audience and worrying too much about the outside audience. The people that pay you for your services every month, according to Smith, are the ones to care for. The people that have never bought your product may never buy your product and it is not worth altering your product to appease those that were never interested in it, which is an action that can easily alienate the people that have supported you over the years. It is great if new people purchase your product, but it is not worthwhile loosing your core group to do so. I wonder how much of that core group has been lost versus new purchasers showing up because of comic book renumbering?

Below are 5 #1 issues of the Avengers that have been released over the past 10 years, and this is only a sampling of their #1 issues!

Kevin Smith's Red State

2011-08-18T18:57:00.000-07:00

Kevin Smith has gone on tour showcasing his latest movie, Red State. For the tour he personally introduces the movie, sits at the back of the theater to watch alongside the audience, and then performs a Q&A. He admonishes that this is nothing new as movies such as Gone With the Wind were handled in a similar manner, although he is perhaps the only person in my lifetime to have done so.

Red State was not picked up by a movie studio. Instead of selling his movie for very little and having a third party represent it, Smith opted instead to showcase his movie in the same style that he has been providing his stand-up and Smodcast tours for the past 5+ years. At first Smith had toured extensively across the United States, leaving myself and others wondering if he would ever grace his audiences in Canada with the movie. Sure enough, on August 17th 2011 he did just that in the city of Calgary, Alberta.

I follow Kevin Smith's career with a level of regularity that fits somewhere between the obsessed and the curious. I love pretty much all of his movies equally and for that I am easily pleased with anything he produces. Not surprisingly I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It is not a laugh-a-minute movie like Clerks but more akin to Dogma with a little more dry humor and levity. The story revolves around a hard-lined biblical group in the United States that kidnap three teenagers and as a result the FDA are called out to end the situation, ala Waco. The acting is excellent, which is not surprising as Smith bring out the best in his actors. The storyline is for the most part quite original and engaging with some very memorable moments. The only downside I wish to point out is that (and this is not a spoiler) the preacher has a very lengthy sermon that needed to be edited down. At some point during the sermon I believe the audience was beginning to get lost, however, the sermon does add a great element of fear and trepidation for what would come next. A positive note is that this movie feels like an indy art-house flick, with frayed edges and a richness that can be studied and discussed ad nauseum.

Following the movie Smith entertained the audience with over 2 hours of great commentary on everything from what occurred while and following the filming this picture to events in his personal life, along with answering numerous questions from the audience. In the early phase of this tour Smith was sometime accompanied by actors in the movie, but in this case it was solo Smith. It is hard to not like Smith because he is incredibly personable and real. There is not a moment when you feel that he is up there only for the money or that what he is doing is an act. This is a rare quality that is a driving reason as to why Kevin Smith has become so popular over the past two decades.

I wholeheartedly recomend anyone reading this blog to go see Kevin Smith on his tour or at the least watch his latest movie Red State once it becomes available on DVD sometime later this fall or early winter.

Star Wars Lego: Obi-Wan Aging through Lego

2011-08-14T11:27:00.000-07:00

One of the attractive features to collecting Star Wars Lego minifigures is that you can see the changes in the characters through the movies. Sure, us geeks & nerds know what the characters look like as they change through the movies but there is another quirk added when Lego has a hand at depicting it. In this post I'll show the changes in Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Grievous Chase Kenobi.

Close up of Grievous.

In my collection I have 5 different Obi-Wans. These five come from Episdes I, II, III, and IV. The first comes from the Jedi Defense I set (7203), released in 2002 and comes with 2 destroyer droids. The second comes from the Bounty Hunter Pursuit set (7133), also released in 2002 and comes with an Annikan, the bounty hunter Zam Wessel, and two ships. The third comes from the Jedi Starfighter set (7143), released in 2002 and included Obi and his ship. The fourth comes from the General Grievous Chase set (7255), released in 2005 and includes General Grievous with his wheel bike and Obi-Wan with a creature called a Varactyle (named Boga) that he rode during the chase scene in the third movie. The final Obi-Wan is ironically the first Obi-Wan produced by Lego. This minifigure was included in the Land Speeder set (7110), released in 1999 and included Luke Skywalker, Obi-wan, and the Land Speeder they road to a place where "you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy"; the Mos Eisley Cantina.

Starfighter Kenobi

Starfighter Kenobi.

For the most part the differences are readily apparent between the Obi-Wan Kenobis. However there are two important distinctions to remember. The first is that all but the General Grievous Chase Kenobi have silver handled light sabers. This Kenobi instead has a gray handled light saber. The second distinction is that the Bounty Hunter Pursuit and Jedi Starfighter Kenobi's are virtually identical except that a headset is printed on his head of the Starfieghter Kenobi. Besides these two distinctions just remember that capes are part of the Jedi Defense I and Pursuit Kenobi minifigures.

Romantic Movies

2011-08-11T08:15:00.000-07:00

The other day I saw Friends with Benefits. The movie stars Justin Timberlake & Mila Kunis. It is very predictable and the majority of the funniest moments had already been shared through the advertisements. However, there is a surprising depth to the movie in the unmasking of Timberlake's character's family. The comedic bits are also charming and as my wife pointed out were enchanting for they were real and not slapstick silly jokes. The majority of the scenes were grounded in reality, which made me the viewer more involved.

Following the movie I began thinking of other recent romantic comedies. The past decade has been quite strong for this genre, much like the quickly approaching over-saturation point for zombie flicks. Many of these flicks have received mixed reviews, if not booed off the stage all together. I think many of the films in this genre have been too harshly reviewed and some have not received the attention that they should have.

An example of what I am talking about is Killers, starring Ashton Kutcher as a retired hit-man who falls in love with Katherine Heigl. This again is a predictable movie, but what I believe the critics miss out on is that the movie is fun. It is not an Oscar caliber movie, but it is fun with entertaining action scenes that are buffered by corny and sometimes witty dialogue. A movie such as this would have swept in the 1980's, and in the past few years of doom and gloom international news a movie such as this should be devoured by the public who yearn for something light-hearted that can transport them away from. Movies with a slightly darker tone of humor have fared much better than Killer. These movies are predominantly of the Judd Apatow creation, such as Knocked Up and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. I would never putt Apatow in the same class as John Hughes, but he has undoubtedly been the king of the field in romantic comedies over the past decade.

Perhaps my favorite romantic comedy of the past decade is 500 Days of Summers, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt (in the top 5 best actors of the past 10 years) and Zooey Deschanel (huge potential and has a great voice in her popular folk band, She & Him). The movie reminds me of Annie Hall in that it is understated, filled with dry humor, has an epic scope, and features impeccable acting within an equally impeccable script. The movie is the dark horse of the past decade and one of my favorite romantic comedies ever, ranking up there with Annie Hall (of course) and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. 500 is also a fantastic movie because it feels real. The plot direction is erratic at times and takes the viewer in directions that they don't always want to enter but know to be true and faithful to the characters. The movie was released in 2009 and received a healthy amount of attention but I feel it deserves more. This should become a seminal movie and I wonder if it will someday be added to the list of cult favorites like Annie Hall and 16 Candles.

Okay, that's the end of my rambling.

Rebel Pilots & from Yellow to Peach Heads

2011-08-09T13:32:00.000-07:00

I have a number of Rebel pilot Star Wars Lego minifigures, but no duplicates except for my Luke Skywalker pilots. What can be taken away from looking at these minifigures is understanding if they come from an X-Wing or Snow-Speeder vs. another craft like an A-Wing or B-Wing. Also, to note that the earlier minifigures had yellow heads that are similar to other Lego series mini-figures. As the Star Wars Lego series continued through the years they switched to peach heads, which I personally preferred them staying with the earlier yellow ones. (Photo left (left to right):3 figures from X-Wing set, B-Wing pilot, A-Wing Pilot, 2 pilots from Snow-Speeder, & Twin-Pod Cloud Car pilot)

A-Wing Pilot

B-Wing Pilot

The pilots from the A-Wing (7134) and B-Wing (#7180) sets have yellow visors, which is not something found on any of the other Star Wars mini-figures I own. What readily sets these two figures apart is that the B-Wing pilot wears a red jumpsuit, and the A-Wing pilot a green one. Both of these sets were released in 2000 and feature yellow-headed figures.

Twin-Pod Cloud Car Pilot.

Back of Cloud Car Pilot

Yellow Headed Snow-Speeder pilots.

Continuing with yellow-headed figures, the Luke Skywalker and Dak Ralter from the Snow-Speeder set (4500) both have yellow heads. This set was released in 2004, but 2 years later with the release of the X-Wing #6212 set, Luke's head is now peach. Another yellow-headed minifigure pilot comes from the Twin-Pod Cloud Car set (7119), released in 2002. A cool feature of this figure is that the back of the head features the computer console that was sported by the associate of Lando in the Empire Strikes Back.

One final point is that the flight suits for the Snow-Speeder and X-Wing sets discussed here are identical. I would think there should've been some sort of difference, but apparently not. Just take note of the heads though.

Difference in R2-D2: Tricky!

2011-08-08T07:49:00.000-07:00

The differences between the R2-D2's in my collection are tricky to spot! Two of the differences might be unintentional because they were perhaps produced by defects in the manufacturing process and hence may not be found on every minifigure. The other difference, which is between the earliest and later R2-D2s is not a manufacturing defect.

In my collection there are 3 R2-D2's. The earliest comes from the Droid Escape set #7106, released in 2001 and belongs to the New Hope series. Also belonging to the New Hope series is the second R2-D2 that came from the Limited Edition X-Wing Fighter set #6212, released in 2006. The third R2-D2 comes from Anakin's Jedi Starfighter set #7669, released in 2008 and belongs to the Clone Wars series.

R2-D2 & 3CP0 from 7106 set.

Backsides: 6212 R2-D2 (left) & 7106 R2-D2 (right)

Differences: The earliest R2-D2 from the 7106 set has a circle instead of a dot on the back of it's dome head, which is sported on both the later versions. The circle is located within a small rectangle that is to the left of a black eye looking shape (see photo).

R2D2 & Anakin from 7669 set.

The Clone Wars (7669) R2-D2 differs from the X-Wing (6212) R2-D2 in that the 7669 minifigure has a blue print within the silver area on the dome, and has a small dot between two larger dots above the rectangle on the back of the dome (same rectangle discussed above). The small dot mentioned here on the 7669 R2-D2 may be unintentional and produced from a manufacturing glitch because the dot is quite small, however the difference in coloring is less likely to be a manufacturing glitch because it is a more

Backside of R2D2 from 7669 set.

noticeable difference; feel free to disagree with my logic on this one.

Darth Vader Star Wars Lego Mini-Figures

2011-08-07T10:26:00.000-07:00

Like the previously posted Chewbacca Lego mini-figures, there are differences between the Darth Vader mini-figures that I have. I have two Vader mini-figures. One comes from the Final Duel I set (#7200) and the other from the 10 Year Anniversary Darth Vader's Tie Fighter set (#8017) (both sets pictured here). The Final Duel I set was released in 2002, and the Tie Fighter set was released in 2009 and belongs to the episode IV, A New Hope series.

Tie-Fighter Vader

Final Duel I Vader, with Emperor mini-fig.

Tie-fighter Vader on left, Final Duel Vader on right.

The differences between the two Vader mini-figures are readily apparent. There is detail that covers the entire chest on the Tie Fighter Vader, representing his flight suit. The chest of the duel Vader has a 1/2 oval design, covers less of the chest, and has less detail in general. The face of the Tie fighter Vader has two scars, one one the left and one on the right side of his face. The duel Vader has only one scar on the right side of hist face. Additionally, the duel Vader has black eye-brows instead of the grey ones on the tie fighter Vader.

Difference in Chewbacca Lego Figures

2011-08-06T13:38:00.000-07:00

I have noticed some differences in the Lego Star Wars figures. This post points out the difference between the Chewbacca figures.

I have two Chewbacca Lego figures in my collection. The earliest comes from the Imperial AT-ST set, released in 2001. The serial number for this set is 7127. The second Chewie figure comes from the Limited Edition X-Wing Fighter set, released in 2006.

AT-ST set 7127

X-Win set 6212

The difference between the two Chewbaccas is that the one from the 7127 set has a lighter, more milk chocolate brown color. The later Chewie is more glossy and has a red-brown color. Neither figure comes with any attachments (crossbow or whatnot). The head piece is attached to the front and back hair, so there is a total of three pieces to these figures.

Chewbaccas: 7127 set (right) & 6212 set (left)

So keep your eyes peeled fellow Lego Star Wars enthusiasts!

Star Wars Lego

2011-08-06T13:04:00.000-07:00

I love Star Wars Lego. I enjoy the building and slowly seeing what it is you're building come together. I also love how Leog strips down a classic idea, like a space ship from Star Wars, and turns it into a blocky mass of simplified colors. The figures are another great feature to the Star Wars Lego line, with the classic shape of Lego people wrapped inside the equally classic Star Wars character designs!

OK, so enough gushing! I have quite a bit of Star Wars Lego and was going through a bunch of it the other night and realized that I have some duplicate figures. I began wondering if there was any differences between the figures that came out in earlier versus later Lego sets, and low-and-behold there were! Noting these differences is incredibly nerdy of me of course but it can also be helpful if you are buying figures at yard sales or conventions. Personally, it makes sense to pay more for an earlier version of a certain character than a later one, and so it is in your best interest to know exactly what you are paying for. In the next few posts I'll be discussing some differences between Lego characters that I noted from my collection. So hang on for a truly geeky trip through the next few posts!

Lego Star Wars Diorama.

Foreseen On the Road

2011-03-24T21:27:00.000-07:00

Monumental events in history has us look, perhaps unconsciously, for clues to its eventuality in previous deeds.

When something important happens we sometimes find precursors or warnings that we previously had not noticed. The falling of the world trade center is such an event that cause people to cite previous 'signs'. However, these signs are likely nothing more than happenstance but nonetheless make us take pause and wonder. Jack Kerouac's iconic novel On the Road is such a source for a sign to 9/11. The book was published in 1957 and tells the tale of a young man's exploration of the wild America. On the last page of the second chapter, in the second section, one of the book's characters wraps a scarf around his ears on a cold New York night. The character, Dean, had said "we were a band of Arabs coming in to blow up New York".

Jack Kerouac

The connection between Kerouac's words and what would happen 40 plus years has been pointed out by others, but I had not realized this until I my recent rereading of On the Road. While this is nothing more than happenstance, it is still interesting to take Kerouac's writing as a reflection of American thinking on the subject of the Orientalist (ala Edward Said) within the framework of 1950's American youth counter-culture.

Democracy Now's Coverage of Aristide's Return to Haiti

2011-03-18T21:17:00.000-07:00

NPR's weekday radio show, Democracy Now (DN), is a heavily left-leaning program that discusses issues throughout the world and tends to favor those issues that affect the United States (I thoroughly enjoy the program too). It's left-leaning slant is the antithesis to Fox's heavily right-leaning news programs. Regardless of NPR's political favoring, their programs like DN tend to showcase examples of excellence in journalism and discusses issues that rarely receive coverage by other more mainstream news agencies; for instance the recent massive demonstrations in the state of Wisconsin have received virtually no mention. However, a black spot has emerged on the quality of DN -the coverage of former president Aristide's return to Haiti -they forgot that every story needs CONTEXT!

Aristide in Haiti (2011)

My context to the story: Beginning earlier this week (March 14th), DN has been covering Aristide's return to Haiti. Back in 2004 Aristide was exiled from Haiti during a military coup that the United States have been accused of backing. Aristide fled to South Africa, where he has stayed ever since. DN staff reporter Amy Goodman traveled there to document Aristide's return which was allowed as the current Haitian government had recently lifted his exile status but the American government had vocally protested such a move and asked that Aristide postpone his return until after the pivotal Haitian elections. The reason is that the previous election that had followed the brutal earthquake that decimated the country was rocked by extreme violence and accusations of election fraud. This latest election is to replace the previous one and it is hoped it will be more peaceful. The American government has said it worries that Aristide's return could jeopardize this peace. Aristide insists that his return has nothing to do with this election and that it is his right to return. Further, Aristide commented that following the election there might be a new ruling party that would maintain his exile. Both of Aristide's comments come from DN's program and reading between the lines suggests a contradiction in his opinion on how his trip is or is not connected to the election.

The Problem: The primary problem with DN's program is that throughout it there is no mention of WHY Aristide was forced out of Haiti and instead only vague innuendo that the US was involved in this somehow. Goodman repeatedly suggested that the US was and is interfering with foreign politics and Aristide's personal freedom. That there was no reason for Aristide's exile is far from the case as he has been cited by Human Rights Watch for his brutal treatment of the political opposition during his run as president. It is true that Aristide was the first democratically elected president of Haiti, but that does not mean he is perfect or saintly as Goodman would have you believe -similar to many other democratically elected leaders I can think of! Instead, Aristide has been also accused of embezzling millions of dollars from an already poor country. This has never been proven, and of course Aristide has vehemently denied it as well.

The Weird: I can also smell something fishy that Goodman has not explained: Aristide has a good friend in a well known American actor, Danny Glover. Danny Glover flew to South Africa this week to escort his friend back to Haiti. He is a known advocate and has been a speaker at a many anti-war rallies. What is odd is that in 2007 president (or dictator if you prefer) of Venezuela Hugo Chavez gave Glover 18 million dollars to film a movie about Toussaint Louverture who in 1791 had led a slave uprising in Haiti (photo on right is of Glover and Chavez in 2007). Chavez has never been known as a humanitarian, and this large sum of money came from the hands of a man who runs a rich country filled with poverty stricken citizens. Glover took that money and considers himself a spokesman for issues of liberty. I smell something fishy

Context is Important Folks: I don't claim to know why the US wanted Aristide out of the country, and that is what is wrong with DN's coverage. It did not give the entire story. Where is the CONTEXT? What US state department spokesman Crowley said back in January was that “We do not doubt President Aristide`s desire to help the people of Haiti. But today Haiti needs to focus on its future, not its past.” I suppose this means Crowley does not see Aristide as a part of this focused on future, but this misses the point. Miss Goodman is a better reporter than this and she should have added context to this story. A good story should encourage a listener or reader to search out more information out of interest and not out of confusion from not having the story properly explained.

Sources:
NPR /DN story(s): http://www.democracynow.org/tags/haiti http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2011/3/18/amy_goodman_reports_aristide_lands_in_haiti_after_seven_years_in_exile

Haiti: Aristide Should Uphold Rule of Law (2004): http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2004/02/13/haiti-aristide-should-uphold-rule-law

Govt Corruption Suit Stalls for Lack of Funds (2006): http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35254

Hugo Chavez, Movie Mogul (2007): http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1624992,00.html

US diplomacy embraces Twitter amid global crises (2011): http://www.dawn.com/2011/01/24/us-diplomacy-embraces-twitter-amid-global-crises.html

Canada's Unrecognized Contribution

2011-03-18T17:29:00.000-07:00

Media groups rarely recognize Canada's contributions to global issues. The contributions may not always be as large as some nations, but they are nonetheless important and it is high time this country gets some attention. The recent coverage of NATO's decision to approve a no-fly zone over Libya is a case in point.

A recent article by the New York Time's about NATO's approval of a no-fly zone over Libya did not mention Canada's role in the event. Their article mentions only Britain and France, as in the opening paragraph of: "The United States, Britain and France pushed forward against Libya on Friday as they declared that a cease-fire abruptly announced by Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s government was not enough, at least for now, to ward off military action against his forces." (New York Times). French forces currently have an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean which houses some 40 aircraft which could be used for this operation, but no exact number of aircraft or specific resources have been committed by France as of yet (Miami Herald). The US involvement is circumscribed only to the talks within NATO and supporting of various sanctions. There are no plans for the US military to support this mission in the form of troops or in leading the mission (Miami Herald). However, the US "would provide "unique capabilities" to enable European partners to enforce no-fly zone, Obama said, and experts predicted that could include providing command and control, intelligence, surveillance and search-and-rescue functions" (Miami Herald).

Canadian CF-18

The Canadian newspaper, The Globe and Mail, had this to say about Canada's involvement: "Canada will send six CF-18s, last in action in 1999 as they bombed Serb positions to protect the Albanians of Kosovo." This contribution may not be as large as some nations, such as the UK's who "according to David Cameron... [deployed] Tornados and Typhoon aircraft, as well as air-to-air refuelling and surveillance aircraft" (BBC News). Similar to France's commitment, Great Britain has not yet committed an exact number of aircraft. It is then interesting that Canada has provided an exact number. Regardless, Canada has been heavily involved in the NATO talks and are contributing resources in an effort to halt the violence in Libya. This stands as yet another example of Canada's involvement on the world stage being completely ignored by foreign and particularly American media sources.

All articles published on-line, March 18th, 2011

NYT article: Allies Press Libya, Saying Declaration of Cease-Fire Is Not Enough http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/world/africa/19libya.html?_r=1&hp

Miami Herald: Obama Vows US Role in Libya will be Limited

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/18/2122564/obama-vows-us-role-in-libya-will.html

G&M article: Canada joins UN call for military action in Libya. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/africa-mideast/canada-joins-un-call-for-military-action-in-libya/article1945738/

BBC News article: Libya 'to halt military action'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12782642

New Cartoon Series: G.I. Joe & Transformers

2011-01-09T13:19:00.000-08:00

So this morning I was watching Teletoon. They aired the first episodes of the new G.I. Joe: Renegade and Transformers: Prime series. They are both good, but the Joe series is far better than the Transformers show which is a bit cliched version of the previous Transformer shows.

So beginning with the lesser of these two shows, Transformers: Prime is a computer animated show that has some decent animation sequences. The new character designs look nice, and I particularly like the soft metal looking faces; works well for depicting facial expressions. The first episode features a drawn out chase sequence and the introduction of three human characters along with a few of the autobots and decepticons. The plot is the same as always, where the autobots befriend a few humans as they are caught between the eternal fight between autobots and decepticons. Nonetheless, the story was interesting enough and even had one surprising mention of the movie 'Fight Club', which was assuredly not expected.

G.I. Joe: Renegade is a better show than the latest Transformers in that it is a great re-imagination of the original cartoon where the battle between Cobra and Joe has been situated in a modern context. It is interesting enough to engage an adult while easy enough to understand to do the same for a younger audience. The plot for the first episode is that Cobra is a multi-national company that deals in pharmaceuticals, communications, weapons, and etc. Beneath the business suit exterior is a snake's head (nice pun eh?). Some within the government know that Cobra is dealing in black market arm sales and other nefarious deeds. The character of Scarlet recruits a few of the American military's best to infiltrate and obtain proof of Cobra's secrets. This does not turn out well for the Joes and they are framed as terrorists in their own country. Great re-imagination of the show right?

The art in G.I. Joe: Renegade is not bad either! It is a cross between the Anime seen in Cowboy Bebop and what Marvel has been producing in shows like the Avengers; many of the characters have angular designs and faces. The character movement is not too stilted and the general facial expressions are passible, especially for a cartoon of this calibre. The backgrounds are also nicely rendered with ample detail and often with stylized shading. In comparison to the new Transformers show, the artists on Joe have put in a lot more effort.

Can I hear a Yo' Joe for this new show?

Evolution of Comics

2011-01-01T14:53:00.000-08:00

Entertainment is changing, which ironically is nothing new. In my opinion there is a move towards packaging serialized stories into larger volumes that could otherwise be digested in the original individual packets for nothing or more cheaply. So why is there a move towards paying more for something that we once received for free or for a little? It's because it offers immediacy to the medium and a perceived value in quantity.

Over the past decade TV shows have been bundled up into individual seasons and sold on DVD. This has revived some TV shows, most notably Family Guy after its third season cancellation, while enlarging the popularity of others but failing to revive them, most notably for Firefly. The packaging of these DVD sets have also become smaller over the years, taking up less space on the bookshelf so that more can be purchased. These sets are popular because they allow a viewer to watch an entire season commercial free, at their own convenience and most importantly (but related) allows the viewer to watch an entire season at once, as opposed to watching it once a week over the course of 6-8 months. Further, this lets people watch shows that they were not able to watch on TV because they were broadcasted in different countries (such as many of the BBC programs) or were shown on higher tier cable networks like HBO (thinking of True Blood, Dexter, etc.).

Most recently, the introduction of the PVR allows viewers to record TV shows and watch them at their discretion while skipping the commercials. While a PVR has a limit on how many shows can be saved at one time, excluding the ability to watch an entire season of one show, it does provide the viewer control over 'when' to watch and to watch 'multiple' episodes at once. In hand with the PVR comes the internet which allows viewers to download or stream episodes, providing the viewer with the same power as is found in the PVR while also providing a greater number of episodes to watch, similar to the DVD sets of a show's entire season.

The point is that viewers are gaining greater control (empowerment) over how they are being entertained. This is not a new revelation as many other people have previously pointed this out (and probably more concisely). What may not have been called attention to is that comic books are also moving in this direction and will continue to do so in the next ten years.

Trade paperbacks (tpb) have been around since the 1970's. These early trade tpb's were comic books (some call them graphic novels) that featured one long comic story with sometimes more adult themes. This style of tpb has continued today, for instance my earlier post about the Swallow Me Whole tpb (http://pickledpeanuts.blogspot.com/2010/09/swallow-me-whole.html). In the late 1980's and early 1990's, tpb began featuring a collection of comic stories that were originally published individually on a monthly basis (eg. Superman issues #14-48). This is similar if not the same to how TV shows are now sold in DVD sets. This style of tpb became increasingly popular as many comic readers could not afford to purchase individual comics (tpb's are generally cheaper) or could not be bothered to return to a comic store on a weekly or monthly basis. Tpb's were also great for they interested readers who normally did not read comics. The tpb seemed like a more authentic and adult form of literature because it came in a book format.

Today, tpb's continue to be popular and the style of tpb's continue to change. The subject matter ranges widely and are now sold in places other than comic stores such as Chapters (always a good sign when a market expands). The medium that tpb's are being sold and distributed has also changed in the last 5-10 years -they've gone digital. Marvel comics has perhaps done the most to encourage the evolution of tpb's with their foray into the digital realm. Tpb's are currently being sold on DVD's, where individual frames and pages are shown on the screen. This creates a sense of movement, although I believe this moves the original medium of comic away from its original form of 'sequential art' and into a grey area between animation and sequential art. Sound effects are also often added to the tpb DVD's.

A second way tpb's have entered the digital age is through the internet and iPhone, iPod and iPad applications. Individual comic stories and tpb's are being digitized and then offered for download onto these popular devices where they can be read at any time and place (for instance Marvel's Spider-Woman series is featured on the iTunes store). Much like the earlier paper form of the tpb, this also presents comics in a more (perceived) legitimate context where society may not automatically consider it children's fair because now it is being read on something socially acceptable and labeled 'cool'. I find this very exciting!

I feel that comics will continue down this path of packaging long stories in small packages to be sold in different mediums. The future looks bright but has its pitfalls. One pitfall is that the audience who purchases the comics in a digital, compiled form, may not be drawn into the comic shops to purchase the original monthly and paper forms. This leaves the audience that does frequent the comic shop at a stagnant level while the digital audience grows. This situation has pros and cons.

Another aspect is that the longer and compiled tpb forms will continue in their popularity and force some comic properties to only be sold in such a form, otherwise they will be faced with their newfound readers leaving that property because it takes too long for the tpb (paper or digital) to be released. A solution to this, and perhaps something we will see in comics, is that comic properties like the X-Men and Batman will be created by a larger team of artists. These properties will be treated much like a TV show where a gang of writers will work on multiple scripts and a gang of artists will bust out the art. The combined effort of these individuals will produce a large volume of stories in a short amount of time, satisfying the demand of the audience. However, the rub is that the quality of the stories may diminish for the stories and art will be rushed. Also, gone will be the day of a single writer /artist with a single vision such as the legendary Frank Miller run on Batman in the 1980's or Neal Adams on the Green Arrow in the 1970's.

Needless to say, the past decade has shown that comics are not dying, they are evolving. The process might be slow and rough, but it is undergoing. I am excited to see where this leads but am also pessimistic by what might be lost.

Some sources:
Longbox Digital Comics image from: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=21693
Captain America Digital comic for the PSP image from: http://www.joystiq.com/screenshots/digital-comics-psp/2217058/#/0
Comic Book Evolution image from: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/45773

A Legendary Rant by Kevin Smith

2010-12-31T13:05:00.000-08:00

Something motivational for today. Considering it's New Year's Eve it seems appropriate. So here I've copied out a rant that Kevin Smith posted on Twitter a few weeks back. This rant is a rare bird and I encourage everyone to follow him on twitter (@thatkevinsmith) or check out his free smodcasts from where this tweet was copied from (http://smodcast.com/home.html).

Smith is a large man to say the least and has been loosing weight since October, which I believe began right after he finished filming his latest movie Red State. Over the summer he was dejected from a plane because the flight attendants believed him to be too large to fly, which was horse shit. He has since been on the defensive about his weight but likewise advocating a healthier lifestyle that included copious amounts of sex, pot, and cigarettes.

Now for his rant:

Dec. 30th, 2010

We’re all too fat, sir.

But weight loss, while a frustrating proposition, is the key - because when you’re thin, you’re healthy, & nobody bothers you - so life’s always a non-caloric-cupcake-&-firework party!

However, having met one or two thin people (or “normies”) in my life, I’ve been able to glean that it’s also not always a picnic being skinny. So if life blows for fat and thin people sometimes, then it’s all relative - except for your packaging.

So remove the whole “IF I CAN JUST GET THIN, EVERYTHING WILL BE BETTER!” bullshit and approach the weight loss with a realistic perspective: losing weight will solely make you thinner & heart-healthier. Other than that, it’s no different from being thin - except all the sweating & getting a hard-on for Devil Dogs.

So when the fantasy factor of weight loss is eliminated (fact: your life may stay the exact same & your problems may not suddenly evaporate), you’re left with un-hyped, non-augmented truth: when you lose weight, you’re doing just that: losing weight.

Now - if you need to attach drama to weight-loss, as a sort of motivator, there’s no better gas in the tank than the simple desire to shut motherfuckers the fuck up. S’fun to watch the endlessly opinionated suddenly choke on a reality they’d never prepared for: the mutable you.

Folks wanna cast you in a walk-on role in the movie of their lives: they wannna minimize you to one aspect/role/title that their self-esteem can handle. Don’t settle for being a last-billed extra in some other prick’s feature; be the goddamned STAR of your OWN movie. The best revenge is when folks who’ve tagged & bagged you suddenly realize their true roles: they amount to little more than a footnote in the film of YOUR life. Then? #CuttingRoomFloor

Now, I’m not spectral communicator & I don’t claim to congress with the dead. But I doubt ANY of this can be accomplished from the grave.

As far as I know, you get one life. Milk it, sir. Chocolate-milk it, if you’ve gotta, but milk it for all it’s worth (without harming others). Treat yourself like you treat the things you own: bag & board your life & put it somewhere fuckers can’t bend your pages, maybe even framed.

But whatever you do, don’t even whimsy about ending shit. It all ends soon enough, without our input or agreement.

Drop a little weight and it’ll be easier to drop a little more. For me it’s more about portion control: I’m an American, so everything I eat is like four feet tall. On Weight Watchers, I’ve been rocking the Smart Ones meals, which I’m using to train myself to remember that two boxes of cereal in one sitting is not a meal; it’s a freak show that belongs on the boardwalk at Coney Island, in the summertime.

Make the portions smaller. It’s the thing no chubby wants to hear, but it’s the only path: eat less & exercise. I’ve been doing that since November first and I’ve lost 40 pounds now. And if I can do it, ANYBODY can do it. I’m the laziest, fattest slob I know. My gut has a gut. But I’ll go Christian-Bale-In-The-Machinist before I give this wicked, wicked world one more second of my life any earlier than I’ve gotta…

Batman watched his parents get killed and rather than crumble in defeat, he opted to stay above ground to make sure the same didn’t happen to anyone else. Granted, Batman is fictional… but then, so are most of the people you look up to. They’re fictional, too: you don’t see their struggles, you only see their wins. Life is a zero-sum game: there has never been a winner.

Find a role model: someone who’s done this life in a way that inspires you and use the lessons of their life to enrich your own (hands off Gretzky, Lunchbox: he’s mine). But find a role model, not a hero. Learn from others but be your own hero.

Long story short: next meal, eat less.

Meal after that? Eat half.

Leave food behind. Start like that.

In a week or two, step it up a little: go out walking. Bring an iPod (I recommend loading with some SModcast Network shows). Walk for 10 minutes. Then 20. Then 30. Increase weekly.

A week will go by. Then a month - at the end of which, you’ll have lost some weight. It may not be a breathtaking amount, but it’ll be enough to make you wanna lose a little more, maybe. And then a little more.

But you can do this. Just know you’re going to do it ALONE - and that’s okay. This is YOUR journey. From time to time, even when nobody else understands why, we have to act against their grain - to get shit done.

Expect some taunts and teases from the swine. I suggest finding a somewhat less-traveled road (but always let someone know where you’re going); and to paraphrase Teddy, a walking stick’s good for balance and for making fucktards think twice about shooting their mouths off.

So no more of this suicide bullshit: how the fuck do you know you’re not the one who’s supposed to cure cancer? Or change shit? Or inspire the one who will change shit? The flick has three acts, sir; stay above ground - or you’ll never know what was possible; just what wasn’t…

So today, eat only HALF that Ho-Ho. All this week, eat only half the Ho-Ho. Next week, it’s Anti-Claus time: meaning NO Ho-Ho. Ho-Ho’s won’t vanish in our absence: there will always be Ho-Ho’s. Months from next week, maybe years even? You can have another Ho-Ho - after which, you may mutter to yourself “Wasn’t worth it…” because that Ho-Ho becomes an hour walk to even make a dent in the caloric burning department.

We’ll lose weight, @thedarkknight98 - that’s easy. Much harder to lose: the yapping, negative swine.

Like herpes, they’ll be with us always.

A Theater Revolution Cont.

2010-12-29T05:34:00.000-08:00

Here are two suggestions for how to improve movie going experiences. The first is to have theaters reward and encourage respectful behavior. This can be accomplished through creating a rewards program where respectful movie goers obtain a card similar to the Sceneit card. This card is then used to purchase tickets to movie screenings that are advertised as a zero tolerance area for talking and other disruptive behavior. To purchase said tickets you must have this card, and this card can be revoked if it is found that you have abused the policies such as no talking.

The second suggestion is an option if movie theaters show no interest in improving the movie going experience. This is where we rally together to make the change ourselves. Movie theaters rent out their screens for private showings of movies for birthdays and other celebrations. Why not have a celebration of basic movie goer respect? Create on Facebook or Twitter a fan page where people can come together in your community. Every week or month, organize a movie night where a screen is booked for one of the more recent movies. Commit a number of people from your fan pages to seeing this movie where it will be filled with people of a similar mindset. By doing so, you eliminate the disrespectful from your movie watching experience.

A Theater Revolution

2010-12-28T22:02:00.000-08:00

I love movies and I love seeing them in the theater. However, I hate the dregs of society that sit next to me in the movies. I am not alone in this feeling. I am sick of those who come to a movie, paying a fair chunk of change to: eat their popcorn like they haven't seen food in days and to eat this food while having mouths gaping: constantly checking their cell phones for that all important message that will alter their state of being (it aint coming because you are not that special -sorry): talking to their friends about their other low-life scum sucking friends: narrating the movie for the well seeing and hearing douche of a friend that sits next to them watching the same God forsaken movie: hopping up and down from their seat to either refill that enormous bucket of lard and starch to sedate their sarlac pit of an appetite: bring their 2 year old to an existential movie about the French Revolution and then wonder loudly why their child is squirming and yelling. Guess what people? I don't want you sitting next to me in a movie theater and neither do a lot of other people!

I encourage those who share these sentiments to become vocal. Call these fuckers out. Feel free to embarrass them and tell them to be quiet or stop being a fucking cancerous nuisance. Leave the theatre for a minute and have a staff member eject them from the theater; chances are you will be rewarded with a free pass to your next movie. Do something to make yourself heard and lets make a stand against the ignorance of the world. Sure I am only referring to movie goers here, but this shit is important to me. A movie theater is supposed to be an escape from the assholes of the world. I pay to experience this escape, not to be trapped for 2 hours with those I am fleeing from.

Next, I encourage movie theaters to embrace these sentiments. I plead with movie theaters to be active in ridding these detestable creatures from their houses of business. Proclaim loudly that you agree with the words above and that you promote such a haven away from the Darwin rejects of our society. If you do this I will come. The numerous masses of those with similar attitudes will also come. The alternative to doing nothing more than the inept status quo of broadcasting brief postings prior to the movie to stop talking, put down the phone, and enjoy the movie will result in those faithful to paying to watch a movie will disappear. We are numerous and we are what make movies successful. We, the many who love to escape through the medium of a movie will dwindle away. We are also a strong and valued source as we see more than one type of movie. We see them all. We go when the economy is thin and we go when the sun is up and the skies are blue. We go no matter what and we thank you for the service you provide, but with an abuse of this service comes a re-evaluation of its worth.

Comics Adapted to Film: Why Reinvent the Wheel?

2010-12-08T05:56:00.000-08:00

Poster for Singer's
Superman Returns.

Over the past few months test images from the Superman Returns movie have been released over the internet. The movie was directed by Bryan Singer and released to lukewarm reviews in 2006. It picked up from where the second Superman (released in 1980) movie ended. Personally, I enjoyed Singer's sequel although I thought its pace was slow at times.

Superman test suit from Burton's
Superman movie. Even the face of
the mannequin resembles Cage's.

Tim Burton was to originally direct Superman Returns, and Nicholas Cage was to be Superman instead of Brandon Routh who Singer casted. Images from the costumes that Burton was to use were released over the internet last month, and this month special affects designs were released from Singer's movie.

Doomsday from
DC Comics.

Most of the recently released images deal with costume designs. They are sketches and paintings, an attempt to visualize the style the movie was to take. What irked me, however, was that there was also a design of Doomsday. This character was the one who 'killed' Superman in the comics, back in 1992. I have never been a fan of the design of Doomsday in the comics and thought the idea was weak. It was like a 'hand of God' ending to a story line, where the author could not think of a better way to bring a story line to a conclusion so the most unthinkable action sweeps in mysteriously to usher in a closing. To me, the most logical conclusion to a story that dealt with Superman's demise involves a nemesis he has always faced, such as Luthor or more interestingly Batman, or he dies by his own selfless hands whilst saving Metropolis. All very heroic and befitting the character, unlike him being pummeled to death by a previously unknown space man on steroids. Regardless of how I felt, the character of Doomsday has remained popular by fans and a fixture in the Superman universe for the past 18 years.

Ill fated Doomsday design from
Singer's Superman Returns.

Now we know that Singer had a similar view of Doomsday as the fans did, except for how the character should be depicted. This is the problem. Singer's version of Doomsday is radically different from the comic character and reminds me more of a alien space marine that mated with a locust. While I admitted above that I am not a fan of Doomsday's character design from the comics, I still believe that when a character is adapted to a movie it should not be wholly removed from its origins. Otherwise, what is the point of adapting a character at all? This is all too common in Hollywood comic adaptations (eg. Daredevil). I will agree that it is often interesting to see some alterations to a character in both appearance and personality as it shows the outlook that the director or writer or actor had, but this cannot be taken too far as is the case with Doomsday. Otherwise you might as well call the character and movie something else. Artistic taste and vision can easily go too far in adapting a material into film, and the original source must always be referenced.

Perhaps I should be glad that Singer did not make a sequel after all.

Rethinking the Mundane

2010-11-29T18:28:00.000-08:00

Not enough people reconsider what is taken for granted. Take for instance a commuter train. How much has truly changed about a commuter train in the past 100 years? I would say not much, especially not much in the way of revolutionary changes.

I, and others, would argue that it is the mundane and matter of fact aspects of materials and life that should be questioned in order for society to evolve. All too often changes in society occur in minute aspects of our technology and culture. For instance, how we light our houses has not changed all that radically for we still use an object that looks remarkably similar to the traditional light bulb and affix it in all too common places within our dwellings that would not be unlike that of a home say 100 years ago. How we light our homes has not changed, but small aspects of the technology have.

Returning to commuter trains, I look to three aspects that could be changed. These aspects are in different orders of scale and none have answers; often I find it more productive and difficult to pose a question than an answer, for at least an answer can generate a dialogue that did not previously exist.

The first aspect is how a train travels. The triplet form of traveling consists of ground, water, and air. These are exclusive from one another and presuppose us into thinking there are not other forms. Instead of asking how we can make an engine go faster or a route be streamlined to increase a train's efficiency, why not look to another way it can travel. Is there a fourth way to travel? By looking at this issue, the feasibility and possibility of traveling greater distances and over more difficult terrain and conditions can be lessened. Further, my hope and wish for trains (speaking of commuter not commercial trains) to be used in connecting Canadian cities may become more realistic as much of the Canadian countryside can be rough and the cities are widely spread apart.

The second question is how people fit into the train. In the city in which I reside the commuter trains are often packed, leaving a few unfortunate stragglers behind to wait for (hopefully) the next less full train. In response to this perceived problem, can people fit into a train in such a way that there is more room for other people? This problem asks if people currently ride a train via the most efficient way. The two ways currently employed is to either sit or stand. Passenger trains that go long distances have cots, or so I've seen in movies. This would be a third way to 'fit into a train', but are there other ways?

Lastly, people enter trains through rectangular doors that are evenly spaced across the facade of a train. However, is this the only way people can enter a train? Do the doors have to be placed in such a way and can they take a different shape? Often I see a bottleneck form as people furiously try to get into the train before it departs. Can the doors be rearranged or reshaped to prevent such bottlenecks? The reduction of these bottlenecks would decrease the time it takes for a train to reach its destination as the time required for passengers to board is now reduced.

I must reiterate that I do not have the answers to these questions. It is not folly either to offer a question and no answer. Exercises such as these aid in people noting the issues in their world that can be improved upon; to be tinkered with. It is through such actions that realizations occur and motivations are sprung into working towards finding answers to such new found problems. I feel that these exercises of thought are not encouraged in our school systems and places of work. Instead, children and adults are bombarded by questions that demand answers and a study that produces only more questions is deemed a failure. This is not the case and such thoughts should be discouraged. Instead, challenge yourself to look at issues and items taken for granted in new ways. View the world from the perspective of an outsider and ask it basic questions. Otherwise, we will only be wishing for change and producing nothing but the same in a different color.

What Happened to New Comic Book Characters?

2010-11-26T22:11:00.000-08:00

X-Men, from the
1960's.

What happened to new comic book characters? I'm talking about how the two major publishers of comic books (Marvel and DC) appear to rely only upon their tried and true characters. The 1960's and 70's had an explosion of characters for Marvel and DC, most notably with Stan Lee's creations of the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, the X-Men, and others. The characters that emerged out of these pivotal decades are the same that dominate today's comics, over 40 years later.

I recognize that it is expensive to introduce a new comic character. Launching a new book with an unfamiliar character is a risky and expensive move by any publisher. Centering an already popular book around a new character is also a risky and expensive move as it can alienate an already devoted audience. However, the risk of not introducing new characters is that the older ones will become spread too thin and be overused. It takes gumption to introduce a new character and I strongly feel the major publishers are playing it far too safe. They (publishers) should hire talented individuals and trust them in their creative abilities. If not, then comic fans will never know what characters could be introduced to their beady little eyes on a monthly basis, and of course, begin to cherish as much as the old characters.

Echo, by Terry Moore, is
one of the few recent
examples of a new character
but from an independent
publisher.

While there a few exceptions (referring primarily to the Vertigo line of comics), I can only hope that the major publishers will change their ways in the near future. Please, take a chance and allow fans like myself to experience new character creations. Even if it is a flop, it will still be a step forward. It will also provide diversity to the now static comic shelves. Through those mistakes perhaps we can also gain a better appreciation of where this wonderful medium is headed.

San Diego Comic Con 2010: Episode XII

2010-10-31T22:24:00.000-07:00

Cast members of Glee

On Sunday, the final day of Comic Con began with Ballroom 20. Here, we saw Smallville (which was particularly special as this was the final season), Supernatural, American Dad, and Glee! Each of the panels was great, and while I am not a huge fan of Smallville or Supernatural, it was a real treat to sit there with a couple of thousand people who were screaming and vibrating over how excited they were for these shows. It made it just that much more memorable!

Like minded individual!

Following the Sunday panel, which was the last of the convention, we moseyed over to the swag room. The place was located outside the convention center at the Marriott down the street north from the convention center. On a side note, the San Diego Comic Con was being filmed that year by Morgan Spurlock for his next documentary, tentatively entitled: Comic Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope. I mention this because as we were walking through the Marriott we came across a room with multiple signs stating that filming and editing was in process in that area, so those walking past were to remain quiet. We were already aware that Spurlock was filming and although we remained vigilant we never did see him, but perhaps saw his film crews on a multiple occasions. Getting back to the swag room, we walked through a maze inside the Marriott and finally came to a small room where people were lined up against the wall with boxes of free swag behind them. Throughout the convention tickets were provided at random panels. These were not given to everyone either as they were limited. I had wanted to redeem the tickets earlier as the swag was a first-come-first-served basis and they did not have enough for everyone with a ticket. As the room closes at around 5, and it was located away from the convention center, we decided to wait till the last day when we would not miss too much while retrieving our swag. This is probably the best decision as you do not attend Comic Con for the swag but instead for the experience of panels and whatnot. What we got reaffirmed our initial suspicions of the swag as well. We figured the swag would probably consist of buttons and posters, and we were not disappointed. The buttons were cool but would not have been worth missing a panel for. I met some people that were obsessed with the swag, but it can be difficult to find the spots where it is given out, and sometimes the swag is given to you directly. Some of this swag is supposed to be pretty sweet. Not mentioned earlier was that previous to Guillermo del Toro taking stage, I had been given a card with ‘999’ printed on it. This card was to be redeemed for a limited edition print of the Haunted Mansion, a movie to be directed by Toro, and it would be autographed by the man himself when you arrived to pick it up. However, the rub is that they do not say what these cards or tickets are for. You do not find this out until you redeem them. I am glad I stayed in the panel as there were a lot of celebrities that I got to see, but the poster and meet with Toro would have also been nice. The point is that you have to decide what you want and realize that the ticket or card could be for something like a cheap poster or button, or an exclusive meet and greet, although if you receive a card that no one else around you was given, then it might be for something much more than a button and worthwhile going to.

Warner Bros. area on the
main hall floor.

The main floor remained open when the panels ended. This is a great time to walk around and visit the vendors you may have walked past previously. There are many deals to be had with the end of the convention as the vendors would rather sell their stuff cheap than have to transport it back to where it came from. The downside is that many of the comic creators have either already left or are incredibly tired of a busy 4-5 days. If you know of a few vendors that had wares that previously piqued your interest, go there sometime around 1-2 hours remaining in the day and make them an offer. I made off with a few good deals, but it was a mad house, so beware. The best deal was to be found at the Dark Horse Comics booth where they gave away all of their single issue comics away for free and everything else was 50% off.

On a somewhat separate note, do not try to carry too many things in the free bag Comic Con gives you when first picking up your passes. The shoulder bag may appear large, but the straps are NOT strong. As I had grabbed a metric ass-load (yes, that is a measurement) of comics and stashed them in the shoulder bag, it quickly broke when exiting the convention center. Make sure to bring a more trustworthy messenger bag or back pack. Especially one with a number of pockets that can be used for food, drinks, and keeping certain things separate like comics from pointy toys!

Finally, over the speakers came a resigned voice stating that the Comic Con 2010 was over. It was amazing to be in a giant building with thousands and thousands of like minded individuals around you that all moaned simultaneously. Despite this, everyone remained courteous, though there were a few exceptions of people frantically trying to buy up various pieces of merchandize. My wife and I slowly exited the building, and although I was sad, I was also completely content with the fact that I finally made it to the San Diego Comic Con. It is the world’s largest comic book convention, and has grown into more of a cornucopia of pop culture, catering to those who have cherished what is deemed geeky and unfashionable, but has recently become trendy with TV shows like the Big Bang Theory. My final comment and recommendation for anyone going to Comic Con is that enter those doors knowing that you will not experience everything, but be content with what you do experience. This is one of the truly magnificent features of the convention; everyone has a truly unique experience no matter what panel you go to, what event you score tickets to, who you may run into, or what you may buy. However that being said, make sure to experience as much as you can!

Comic Con was everywhere! Even a
statue got into it!

San Diego Comic Con 2010: Episode XI

2010-10-31T22:12:00.000-07:00

Stan Lee at San Diego
Comic Con 2010

Saturday is the last day for most of the big panels, and the last full day of the convention. We again stood in line for Ballroom 20, and again we attended only the first half of the day’s panels so that we could explore other areas of the convention. For this morning we saw the panels, and full casts, for Chuck, Family Guy, The Cleveland Show, Futurama, and The Simpsons. Chuck was great, and the cartoon panels had script reads of upcoming episodes by the cast members. This was something wholly unexpected and a highlight of the day, especially with Seth McFarlane singing in the voice of Stewie from Family Guy.

After leaving Ballroom 20 on Saturday, we explored the main hall, running into Danny Devito, Stan Lee, and having a photo taken with the incredibly friendly Jason Mewes –despite his abandonment by his handler and deep need to escape for a cigarette. After a failed attempt to meet Val Kilmer (who did not show up for his appointed meet and greet time), we decided to tempt fate and wait in line to enter Hall H to see Kevin Smith’s comedy panel and a few movie panels (including the Avengers). While waiting in line we discovered that someone was stabbed in the eye inside Hall H for yelling “Resident Evil sucks”; note, this is a rarity and Comic Con should not be thought of as ‘unsafe’. As it seemed that the Hall would be closed for the day we decided to walk over to the Indigo Room to see a screening of Cop Out, introduced by Kevin Smith (in person) following his comedy panel.As it later turned out, Hall H was not closed but even though we waited numerous hours to enter Cop Out, it gave us a well needed rest and guaranteed us front row seats. Additionally, when I had left the line-up I rode the escalator up with Joss Whedon who was returning from his announcement that he would direct The Avengers movie! It was a moment of awe, surpassed only by the priceless moments where we sat a few feet away from Kevin Smith, one of my favorite directors. The movie did not get out till very late and while walking back to the hotel we ran into Matthew Lillard (of the Scream movie fame) and Cassidy Freeman (from Smalliville fame). As every night on our trip to San Diego, we ended it with broad smiles!

San Diego Comic Con 2010: Episode IX

2010-10-31T22:03:00.000-07:00

Barenaked Ladies performing the theme
song to The Big Bang Theory, just prior
to the cast arriving to the panel.

The other three days of Comic Con went much like the first, filled with a crazy cacophony of pop culture entertainment. On Friday we went to Ballroom 20, which is the second largest room. There, TV show panels were put on, unlike Hall H that presents panels about upcoming movies. Ballroom 20, on Friday, included the casts of Stargate Universe, Caprica, and The Big Bang Theory. There were other panels too, but we only stayed for these first three. Big Bang was, in particular, great as it began with the Barenaked Ladies performing the TV show’s theme song. In retrospect we should have stayed in the room, but we were compelled to experience what else the convention had to offer. Unfortunately, we intended to meet the cast of the Big Bang Theory at the Warner Bros. booth. This was the most unorganized and chaotic booth on the main floor. I do not recommend trying to go there as for us our experience included waiting around for an hour wondering where the line began, only to discover the line was somewhere else. Other booths, such as the other TV station booths (ABC, NBC, FOX, etc), were much more organized and had well marked lineups for meeting the celebrities and someone who stood at the back of the line with a sign denoting if the line was full or not. Despite this, we did get to see Anna Paquin from True Blood as she walked past us to enter the Warner Bros. area to sign autographs.

The rest of Friday was not a bust. We walked around the floor checking out all the vendors. The hall is huge and cannot be done quickly. We focused on the comic book creators that were there and found one of our favorite artists /writers: David Mack. After the convention had ended for the day we headed outside into the ever-exciting Gaslamp District where we headed for the Broken Yoke. This is a great little breakfast place that is open late. The prices are affordable and located close to the convention center (between J and K street on 6^th Ave.). As an added bonus, most of the restaurants are to be found on 5^th Ave, so while this place is close not many people were there because the mobs stuck to 5^th.

San Diego Comic Con 2010: Episode VIII

2010-10-31T21:57:00.000-07:00

Line for Hall H.

Day one of Comic Con began with a bang! Well, not literally. We woke up early and hustled our way out the door, debating on whether to walk or take one of the shuttle busses that the Con provides free of charge (there are multiple busses that pick guests up at a spot near or at their hotel and bring them to the convention center, and then can be picked up again at the convention center to be brought back). We opted for walking as the busses unfortunately do not run all that early, and if you want a good spot in a line you should probably find your own way there. It was a pleasant walk despite it being so early, and it gave us an opportunity to buy a coffee. This is important, as if you are a coffee drinker it is difficult to buy coffee (nonetheless good or cheap coffee) once you are at the convention center. Furthermore, the first few hours of each morning at the Con are spent in a line. You cannot buy food or drinks while in line as most things are still closed, so it is best to pick something up that morning or the night before. Thankfully there is a Starbucks located in the Gaslamp along 5^th Ave, which is the main street you want to walk towards the convention center if you are staying at a hotel in the downtown area.

The line for the Thursday morning was not all that bad. We had heard horror stories of the line ups, especially for the main hall that we were in line for on that morning –Hall H. We soon realized that this was from the previous year’s Twilight panel. As none of the actors from that movie were there in 2010, the line ups were not so bad. It was made that much more pleasant because of the people around us. We befriended a few people standing in line with us and talked to each other over the next few hours. It was great as these people were not only friendly and shared mutual interests, but they had attended Comic Con before and were able to give us advice on what to expect. That is one of the key features of Comic Con; the people standing in line with you tend to be super friendly and will always have sage advice on how to maximize your fun!

Paulie Shore at the
San Diego Comic Con!

As I’ve already said, the line ups were not too bad. As the line began to move we saw Paulie Shore doing an interview for some new talk show. He went around interviewing various people that were waiting in line and as he did so someone farther back in the line started yelling out the names of the movies he’s been in: Biodome! Stepson! Etc etc. Definitely a cool moment.

Inside Hall H.

Once inside Hall H we were struck by the enormity of the room. Hall H holds over 6,500 people. The seats are arranged into large square groupings with even larger screens hung from the ceiling at multiple locations so that no matter where you are seated you can still see the action! Not only do these screens show what is happening on the big stage at the back of the Hall, but they also show the clips and trailers for the movies that the guests are promoting. When first entering the room, a line of people giving out swag bags great you. Make sure to take what they have as many times there are special tickets inserted into random bags (these tickets get you into the events happening throughout the downtown area I had mentioned in the previous post).

We had found ourselves two seats with a decent view, but not exactly close to the stage. Roughly 1/2 way to 1/3 up to the stage was where we sat. This is something to remember: do not fool yourself into thinking you will get prime seats in Hall H. There are thousands of other people thinking the exact same thing! Many of the sections close to the front are also reserved for special attendees and press, making it that much more difficult to obtain prime seats. Despite the fact you may not get a great seat, you will still be able to enjoy the event(s) as the screens will show you everything that is going on up front, not to mention that the guests have mikes.

Michael Cera dressed up
Captain America.

We decided to stay in Hall H all day as there were just too many great panels happening! We did not leave our seats until the panels had finished at around 5 pm. As a bonus, there are bathrooms and a food /drink vendor in the Hall. It extremely difficult to get back into Hall H once you leave the room, so you have to make that commitment that if you leave, you will probably not get back in since the line up does grow longer throughout the day and that there are many other people like my wife and I who decided to not leave at all! So why didn’t we leave? Well, the panels were amazing and included cast members from: Megamind (Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, and Jonah Hill), Tron (full cast), Battle Los Angeles (Aaron Eckhart and Michelle Rodriguez), Salt (Angelina Jolie and Liev Schreiber), RED (Bruce Willis, Helen Mirin (who, as always a class act, walked out wearing a Harvey Pekar shirt, who had just passed away), Mary-Louise Parker, and Karl Urban), J.J. Abrams and Joss Whedon discussion (both were there!), The Expendables (Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Terry Crews, and Randy Couture), and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (full cast including Michael Cera, Kieren Culkin, Anna Kendrick, Chris Evans, Brandon Routh (Superman!), and Jason Schwartzman). OK, so that was an impressive list of names right? Well, as my posts about Comic Con have already been INCREDIBLY LONG, I will not go into detail about these panels, except that everyone listed above and more were there! It was amazing to here the stories of how the movies were made, what the stars thought of the movies, and other side stories they had –Stallone was the best for this. In addition, other stars just randomly showed up, like acclaimed director Guillermo del Toro, Simon Peg, Nick Frost, and more! One final note though, each panel is hosted by an individual that is often of some relation or importance in the entertainment industry or Comic Con. While I did not recognize all of the people hosting the panels, I did recognize that The Expendables panel was hosted by Harr Knowles of aintitcool.com! Aint that cool!

Another quick note about the day in Hall H was that the Tron panel became interactive! The director announced that they still needed some audio for the movie, so on the sayings were shown on the screen in which the audience was supposed to repeat. These sayings (and stomps and claps) were the sound of an audience cheering and jeering were to be used in a race scene from the Tron movie.

As we left Hall H we were immediately introduced to the blaring sun and throngs of people moving left and right past the building. We decided to look at our maps and figure our what we wanted to do. The downside to attending a panel all day is that there is little else occurring at the convention center specifically, and the main hall floor is already closed. So as we stood there we saw a few guys rushing past us. We quickly realized that Nick Frost was whom the guys were rushing towards! We followed suit and asked for a photograph, and he politely said yes even though the gentlemen escorting him around said he did not have time. It was great, and made even better with just how friendly Nick Frost was! It was a great almost end to the day!

My wife & I with Nick Frost

We left the convention center after our run-in with Nick Frost and sought food in the Gaslamp district. We walked around looking at all the events occurring in the area, and ran into Bill Duke who played Mack in the movie Predator! It was absolutely awesome as I am huge Schwarzenegger fan and this is probably as close as I’ll ever get to meet him, not to mention that Bill Duke’s character was one of my favorites from the movie. Bill Duke, much like Frost, was incredible nice and kind enough to have a photo taken with me. I grinned from ear to ear for the rest of the day!

Me and Bill Duke!